WATCH: Cleveland sports radio calls Philadelphia sports fans “the worst in the world” after LeBron James joined the 76ers

Two Cleveland radio guys, Nick Wilson and JP Eterlin, responded to LeBron James choosing the Sixers by saying “it’s a great sports town, Philly sports fans are the worst human beings in Philadelphia, he’s about to learn firsthand.”

Look, I expect this kind of take from morons in other cities the moment anything good happens to a Philadelphia team, so this isn’t shocking. It stings more when guys like Spike Eskin do it from inside our own market, but at least the out-of-town version is predictable.

What I need from the Cleveland guys, though, is a better effort than this, because if you’re going to come at Philadelphia sports fans you have to bring something real.

92.3 The Fan on LeBron James to Philly:

"It's a great sports town. Philly sports fans are the worst human beings in Philadelphia. He's about to learn firsthand."

🚨 @NickWilsonSays and @JPeterlin on LeBron's decision to join the #76ers pic.twitter.com/jNCldkubul

— 92.3 The Fan (@923TheFan) July 24, 2026

The Tired Batteries-and-Santa Routine Doesn’t Work Anymore

You cannot call us the worst sports fans in the world because we threw batteries at Santa Claus. First of all, that’s not accurate. Second of all, neither the Santa incident nor the battery stuff happened within the last two decades, and dragging out events from generations ago to describe a fanbase in 2026 is the laziest possible way to make an argument.

These guys behind microphones in Cleveland don’t know a single thing about Philadelphia or our fans, and the fact that their entire case rests on incidents older than most of the current Sixers roster tells you everything about how much thought went into it.

Yeah, we boo people. Nobody in this city is denying that. We all just watched it happen in real time at the MLB All-Star Game, where the kids in the outfield didn’t catch fly balls and the crowd let them know about it immediately. That’s par for the course here.

Booing isn’t cruelty, it’s a standard, and everybody who steps into one of our stadiums understands that you show up and perform or you hear about it.

Every Single Player Loved Citizens Bank Park Last Week

Here’s the challenge for the Cleveland guys and anyone else who wants to run this bit. Find one interview from an MLB player during All-Star week who didn’t absolutely love the crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

You can’t, because they all loved it.

Jordan Walker got booed relentlessly during the Home Run Derby and came away calling the atmosphere special and saying he’d never heard a crowd cheer that loud for Schwarber and Harper.

That’s the whole point. The passion cuts both ways and every visiting athlete who experiences it walks away understanding exactly what makes this city different.

And if that’s not enough, LeBron James himself said it last year after a game at Wells Fargo Center.

LeBron James on Philly Fans:

“One thing you know about Philly fans, they don’t care about anybody besides their home teams and I respect and I love that. To be able to have an appreciation for the City of Brotherly Love and for me to go out and still play the game that I love and them respect it, it’s pretty cool.”

The man who just chose to sign here already told you a year ago how he feels about this fanbase. He’s not walking into a hostile environment blind. He knows exactly what he’s getting and he chose it anyway.

Be Mad About the Signing, Not the Fans

So please, by all means, be as bitter as you want that LeBron James picked the Philadelphia 76ers over Cleveland. That’s a real emotion and I understand it, because Northeast Ohio wanted the homecoming and didn’t get it.

Jeave the fans out of it. We sat through twelve-plus years of The Process, the 10-win seasons, the blown leads, the second-round exits, and every gut-punch the basketball gods could invent, and now the fruits of that fandom are finally arriving in the form of the greatest player who ever lived choosing our team.

You can cry about the decision. You cannot tell us we don’t deserve it. We’ve earned every bit of this.

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