LeBron James may have finally landed on the Philadelphia 76ers in his lengthy journey through free agency, a journey that he said he has made for the last time in his career, but never throughout the process did it seem like there was a straight road for James to the city of Brotherly Love. 

From the moment that James announced that he would be leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, there was an endless stream of speculation as to what he was going to do next. From his agent Rich Paul revealing a whiteboard of prospective teams on his podcast to reports from media figures like Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst, it seemed like the pursuit of James could go in any direction. 

Over time, a shortlist of teams was revealed, including both the 76ers and Golden State Warriors, as well as teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat, both teams that James has a past history with and both teams that look to be in solid positions to be playoff contenders. 

The 76ers, Heat and Cavaliers were all reported to be teams with better chances at signing James than the Warriors, but now that James has signed with the 76ers, Paul revealed that most of the reports were wrong and that the Warriors did in fact have one of the best chances at signing James. 

“This is why I said all that stuff was false, all the speculation," Paul said (via Legion Hoops). "And at the end of the day these guys are just doing their job. It was a layered decision across the board between Philly and Golden State and he just really decided on Philly."

Given James' status as a singular media presence in the modern history of the NBA, it's natural that him entering free agency one more time, and especially considering how long the process took this time around, it was inevitable that there would be endless speculation and reporting centered around James, something that Paul acknowledged.

It was also telling that throughout the process, even if some of the reports apparently got things wrong, that the Warriors were never truly counted out in conversations, even if they were often positioned as the most unlikely option. That indicates that the Warriors always had a strong chance to sign James and that information was making it to the media.

The Warriors has some of the most compelling reasons to sign James simply due to the narrative strength of uniting James with with his old rivals Steph Curry and Draymond Green, but their biggest issue was the overall weakness of their roster, especially relative to the 76ers. 

The fact that James signed with the 76ers at all indicates that the sentimentality that made Cleveland and Miami supposedly strong candidates wasn't all that relevant, which only strengthened the Warriors' case for James and made them the second candidate behind Philadelphia.

But in the end, the Warriors missed out on James and now they can only think about what could have been.