Speed Reads

three billboards outside cleveland ohio

Pennsylvania business infiltrates Cleveland to try to recruit LeBron James to the Sixers

It's safe to say the biggest perk of owning a construction company is that you have the tools to, well, build things. For Asher Raphael, the CEO of Power Home Remodeling in Chester, Pennsylvania, this workplace benefit allowed him to erect some choice billboards along a major thoroughfare in Cleveland:

Raphael arranged for the unsubtle advertisements not to boost his sales of siding and lumber, but to hopefully recruit LeBron James, basketball's reigning monarch, to his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. James can opt out of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer to become an unrestricted free agent, and the Sixers technically do have the cap space to make him an offer.

"LeBron is in the conversation of being the best player of all time," Raphael told ESPN's Darren Rovell. "We think if he comes to Philly, he gets a couple more championships." Raphael apparently demurred in telling Rovell how much the signage set him back — but compared to the millions the Sixers would have to shell out to land James this summer, it's really the least he could do.