LeBron James’ list of superstar teammates is getting even more ridiculous now that he signed with the 76ers, where he’ll join Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey. That new trio hasn’t played one minute with him yet, but Philadelphia already looks like the most stacked roster LeBron has joined since the Heat.
LeBron has played with almost every type of superstar imaginable during his 23-year NBA career. He’s shared the floor with elite scorers, MVP winners, dominant big men, championship guards, all-time shooters, and future Hall of Famers who were already near the end of their careers.
Of course, not all 16 players were still superstars when they became LeBron’s teammates. Shaquille O’Neal, Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, and others were nowhere close to their best versions anymore. Still, their complete careers and names make them impossible to leave out of this conversation.
Here are all 16 superstar teammates LeBron has played with, listed chronologically from his first major star partnership to his new superteam in Philadelphia.
Shaquille O’Neal
Shaquille O’Neal became LeBron’s first teammate with a true all-time superstar résumé when the Cavaliers acquired him before the 2009-10 season. Shaq was already 37 and entering the second-to-last season of his career, so Cleveland obviously wasn’t getting the version that won three straight Finals MVP awards with the Lakers.
O’Neal still gave the Cavaliers 12.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 23.4 minutes per game, shooting 56.6% from the field. Cleveland wanted a huge, physical center who could deal with Dwight Howard and the Magic after Orlando eliminated the Cavaliers in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals.
The regular season went great. LeBron won his second straight MVP after putting up 29.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 8.6 assists, while the Cavaliers finished with an NBA-best 61-21 record. The playoffs ruined everything. Cleveland lost 4-2 to the Celtics in the second round, Shaq struggled to defend in space, and LeBron left for the Heat a few weeks later.
This partnership had an amazing amount of star power on paper, but it came way too late in Shaq’s career. They only shared one season and won one playoff series together.
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, And Ray Allen
This was the group that completely changed LeBron’s career. LeBron joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami during the summer of 2010, creating the first modern player-built superteam. Wade was already an NBA champion and Finals MVP, while Bosh had been a five-time All-Star and the main option for the Raptors until that summer.
The first season wasn’t perfect. Wade still played like a superstar, finishing with 25.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 4.6 assists. Bosh sacrificed more, dropping from 24.0 points in his final Raptors season to 18.7 points and 8.3 rebounds with the Heat. Miami still reached the 2011 Finals, but the Mavericks beat them in six games after LeBron had the worst playoff series of his career.
Everything changed after that. LeBron became the clear first option, Wade accepted a smaller offensive role, and Bosh moved farther away from the rim to give the offense more space. The Heat won the 2012 championship over the Thunder, with LeBron delivering 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in the Finals.
Ray Allen joined them before the 2012-13 season repeat. He wasn’t the 26-point scorer from his Bucks days anymore, but he remained one of the greatest shooters ever. Allen produced 10.9 points in 25.8 minutes while hitting 41.9% from three during his first Heat season.
His biggest contribution doesn’t need much explanation. Chris Bosh grabbed the offensive rebound in the final seconds of Game 6 of the 2013 Finals and passed it to Allen, who hit the game-tying corner three against the Spurs. Miami won in overtime, then won Game 7 for its second straight championship. Without that Bosh rebound and Allen’s shot, LeBron probably leaves Miami with only one ring.
The Heat’s superstars reached four straight Finals and won two championships during their four seasons together. Allen joined for the final two runs and gave them one of the most important shots in league history. This was easily LeBron’s most successful superstar group.
Kyrie Irving And Kevin Love
LeBron returned to Cleveland in 2014 and immediately formed another Big Three with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Irving was already one of the league’s most talented young guards as the 2011 NBA Draft No. 1 pick, while Love had just finished a monster season with the struggling Timberwolves, posting 26.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 4.4 assists.
Love had to make a Bosh-type sacrifice. He became a floor-spacing third option instead of controlling the offense from the post, while Irving remained LeBron’s main scoring partner. The Cavaliers reached the Finals in their first year together, although Love missed nearly the entire postseason with a shoulder injury and Irving suffered a knee injury in Game 1 of the Finals.
The trio finally stayed healthy in 2016, and the result was historic. Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit against the 73-win Warriors to win the franchise’s first championship. LeBron and Irving each scored 41 points in Game 5, becoming the first teammates to both reach 40 points in the same Finals game. Irving later hit the go-ahead three over Stephen Curry in Game 7, while Love forced Curry into a difficult miss during the final minute, baptized as “The Stop” by James himself.
Their offensive ceiling became even crazier in 2017. During the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron posted 29.6 points per game, Irving added 25.8, and Love contributed 22.6. They became the first Cavaliers trio to each score at least 22.0 points per game in one playoff series.
They reached three straight Finals and won one championship before Irving requested a trade in 2017. Irving was probably LeBron’s most naturally gifted scoring guard before Luka Doncic, while Love became an underrated part of Cleveland’s spacing and rebounding. After another Finals loss in 2018 without Irving, again at the Warriors’ hands, James decided to join the Lakers for 2018-19, ending his second stint in Cleveland.
Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose joined the Cavaliers on a minimum contract before the 2017-18 season. The name looked amazing next to LeBron and Kevin Love, but Rose’s MVP days were already long gone because of his knee injuries.
The partnership barely had time to become anything. Rose played only 16 games for Cleveland and finished with 9.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 19.3 minutes. He also shot only 25.0% from three, which made the fit next to LeBron pretty rough.
Rose dealt with an ankle injury, stepped away from the team for personal reasons, and was traded to the Jazz at the deadline before being waived. Cleveland later reached the Finals without him.
This was basically a superstar partnership in name only. Rose and LeBron played together, but there wasn’t enough health, time, or production for it to become an important part of either player’s career.
Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, And Carmelo Anthony
Anthony Davis became LeBron’s most successful Lakers teammate after arriving in 2019. Unlike Shaq, Rose, or Carmelo, Davis was still fully inside his prime. The fit was immediate because Davis could finish LeBron’s passes, score from the post, protect the rim, and switch defensively.
The Lakers won the 2020 championship during their first season together. Davis dominated throughout the bubble, while LeBron finished the Finals with 29.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 8.5 assists on 59.1% from the field. The duo controlled the paint, combining to shoot 76.7% inside the restricted area during the playoffs.
Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo were also major parts of that championship. Howard accepted a small role, defended Nikola Jokic during the Western Conference Finals, rebounded, and gave the Lakers physical minutes at center. Rondo became “Playoff Rondo” again, giving Los Angeles another passer and scoring 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the title-clinching Game 6.
The Lakers later brought Howard and Rondo back in 2021 while also adding Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony. For a few weeks, LeBron was technically teammates with Davis, Westbrook, Carmelo, Howard, and Rondo at the same time. The collection of career achievements was completely absurd, but the basketball was a disaster.
Westbrook still recorded 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 7.1 assists, but his lack of shooting and high turnover rate created a terrible fit with LeBron and Davis. Carmelo was better in his smaller role, putting up 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 37.5% from three.
The Lakers finished 33-49 and didn’t even reach the Play-In Tournament. Injuries hurt them, with LeBron and Davis combining to miss 68 games, but the roster was also too old, slow, and poorly constructed. Rondo was traded during the season, Carmelo and Howard left in free agency, and Westbrook’s Lakers experiment ended the following year.
Davis is the clear standout from this group because he actually won a championship as LeBron’s co-star. Rondo and Howard gave LeBron important title contributions. Westbrook and Carmelo mostly became examples of why collecting famous names doesn’t automatically create a good basketball team.
Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic became LeBron’s teammate after the Lakers acquired him from the Mavericks during the 2024-25 season. It was easily one of the most shocking trades in NBA history, the craziest one that I can remember at least, and it gave LeBron his most talented offensive teammate since prime Wade.
Their first short playoff run ended badly, with the Timberwolves eliminating the Lakers in five games during the first round. The duo had more time to build chemistry in 2025-26, and Luka took full control of the offense while LeBron moved into a secondary role behind a great underdog story like Austin Reaves, who had been with James since 2021 as an undrafted prospect.
Doncic was ridiculous, leading the Lakers with 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists. He earned his sixth All-NBA First Team selection and set a Lakers record with 254 made three-pointers, even though he missed 18 games. LeBron dropped to a career-low 20.9 points per game but remained an elite secondary creator with 7.2 assists.
Reaves also deserves a high-earned mention here, ending his best season yet with 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds, though a calf strain sidelined him for 19 games and most of the postseason. He then signed a four-year, $180 million deal this offseason.
Anyway, the Lakers reached the second round before losing to the Thunder. LeBron still had some huge playoff moments at 41 years old, including 26.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 8.5 assists across the Lakers’ four first-round victories over the Rockets.
The partnership only lasted around a season and a half because LeBron left for Philadelphia last week. It didn’t produce a championship, but Luka was statistically the most dominant offensive teammate LeBron ever had. The problem was timing. Luka is entering his prime while LeBron is reaching the final stage of his career.
Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, And Tyrese Maxey
LeBron’s latest group might be the most loaded one yet, at least based on the previous season’s production. He’ll join Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, and Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia for the 2026-27 season, giving the 76ers four players who scored more than 20 points per game in 2025-26.
Embiid remains the biggest question and probably the most important player. The former MVP produced 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3.9 assists on 48.9% from the field, but he appeared in only 38 games. He has now played just 96 of a possible 246 games over the last three regular seasons. The talent is still superstar-level. His body is the issue.
Brown is coming off the best statistical season of his career. He delivered 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists on 47.7% from the field for the Celtics before Philadelphia acquired him in the Paul George trade. He gives LeBron another powerful downhill scorer, plus a wing who can defend the opponent’s best perimeter player.
Maxey might be the easiest fit of all. He posted 28.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 6.6 assists while hitting 36.7% from three. His speed should be super useful next to LeBron, who can grab rebounds and instantly send Maxey into transition. Maxey also doesn’t need to slowly dribble through every possession, which is important on a roster already full of high-usage players.
This group hasn’t played together yet, so there’s no success to judge. On paper, the 76ers have the talent to win the 2027 championship. They have a former MVP at center, a Finals MVP on the wing, an All-NBA guard entering his prime, and the greatest all-around player ever accepting a smaller role.
Still, the fit could become messy. Embiid, Brown, Maxey, and LeBron all need touches, while Embiid and LeBron aren’t high-volume catch-and-shoot players. Health is an even bigger concern because Embiid has barely stayed available and LeBron will turn 42 during the season.
This is LeBron’s 16-superstar list at its most ridiculous. He started with an old Shaq in Cleveland, built champions with Wade, Bosh, Allen, Irving, Love, Davis, Howard, and Rondo, survived the failed Westbrook experiment, shared the offense with Luka, and will now finish his career next to Embiid, Brown, and Maxey.
No other player has gone through this many different superstar combinations. Some worked perfectly, some failed badly, and some arrived way too late. Philadelphia is his final chance to add one more successful group to the list.
