Thursday, ESPN’s NBA coverage will spotlight one of the most-anticipated moments of the season as the Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). For four-time NBA MVP LeBron James, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers last season, the game marks his regular-season home debut with the franchise.
For NBA Reporter Dave McMenamin, the game also marks the latest chapter in a story he has spent more than a decade covering.
McMenamin has followed James throughout much of the star’s 24-year NBA journey, documenting championship runs, milestone moments and franchise-changing decisions. As James begins his first season in Philadelphia, McMenamin is expanding his beat to include the 76ers while continuing to cover the Lakers and serve as one of ESPN’s primary reporters covering James.
What stands out most to McMenamin is not simply another team change, but the unprecedented longevity James continues to display.
“He’s done this so long at such a high level that he’s made folks numb to what he is actually doing at this age, at this stage of his career,” he said. “It is unprecedented stuff.”
McMenamin believes James remains as driven as ever, pointing to comments James made during training camp about his championship aspirations in Philadelphia.
“He is going to put his all into this Sixers team and believes he can win another championship,” McMenamin said.
The assignment places McMenamin in a unique position.
While maintaining coverage of the Lakers, he will also help chronicle one of the league’s biggest storylines alongside 76ers beat reporter Kris Rhim, who joined ESPN’s NBA reporting team this season after several years covering the NFL.
“There is a curiosity,” McMenamin said of the Sixers entering the season. “Not to steal [former NBA star] Kevin Garnett’s line, but there’s also a sense of ‘anything is possible.'”
McMenamin compared the intrigue surrounding this year’s Sixers team to some of the memorable teams he has covered throughout his career, noting that the league’s most fascinating stories often come with uncertainty and outsized expectations.
As the season progresses, McMenamin and Rhim will continue covering the team as it takes shape, while McMenamin also balances larger feature and enterprise reporting across both the 76ers and Lakers.
McMenamin also hopes to provide guidance for Rhim similar to what Senior NBA Writer Brian Windhorst provided him when McMenamin first joined a LeBron beat more than a decade ago in Cleveland.
The story carries an added layer of meaning for McMenamin, a Philadelphia-area native who has returned home to cover a team he once followed as a fan.
“The kid in me thinks it’s pretty cool,” he said. “I spent time before the Sixers’ first preseason game interviewing Philly hoops legend Sonny Hill and am tickled by the fact that I have [former 76ers executive] Pat Croce’s phone number.”
The assignment has also provided something more personal: additional time with family members who still live in the Philadelphia area.
“I can go to church with my mom, go bowling with my dad, go for a walk with my sisters, grab a beer with my brother,” he said. “Just normal, family stuff.”
And as James takes the floor Thursday for his regular-season home debut with the franchise, McMenamin will be there to document another chapter in one of the most remarkable careers in sports.