Knicks Champion Signs With LeBron James’ 76ers Amid Latest Stadium Announcement

In 1994, Sam Cassell became the answer to a trivia question that would remain nearly unmatched for over three decades: an NBA champion in each of his first two seasons in the league. Only a handful of players in history have managed that feat, and none of them had to fight through the G League, a trade, and a waiver wire to do it. LeBron James, wrapping up his 24th NBA season in a new city, just watched that exact story unfold on the roster he's now joining.

Dillon Jones - a back-to-back NBA champion with the OKC Thunder in 2025 and the New York Knicks in 2026 - signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported on X.

"Back-to-back champ Dillon Jones signed with the 76ers to an Exhibit 10 contract, a team source told ESPN," McMenamin wrote. "He'll be a part of Philly's training camp later this month."

The move puts Jones in the same building as LeBron James for the first time. James begins a new chapter with Philadelphia this season after leaving the Lakers in free agency.

An Exhibit 10 deal is a low-risk, non-guaranteed training camp contract, one that gives Jones a chance to compete for a roster spot or a two-way slot, with a bonus if he's reassigned to the G League affiliate rather than kept on the main roster. That is the same type of modest opportunity Jones has turned into two championship rings over the past two years.

Jones was drafted 26th overall by the Washington Wizards in 2024 out of Weber State. He was later traded to the Knicks and, subsequently, the Thunder, where he appeared in 54 regular-season games as a rookie and scored 23 points across three Finals appearances as the Thunder beat Indiana for the title.

He was then traded to Washington that summer, waived by them before ever suiting up, and bounced through the G League before New York signed him to a two-way contract in January 2026.

He played sparingly for the Knicks - seven regular-season games, 1.3 points per game and didn't appear in a single postseason game due to his two-way status. But he was on the bench for all of New York's historic playoff run, watching the Knicks beat San Antonio in five games to end a 53-year championship drought.

He became just the second player in Big Sky Conference history to reach an NBA Finals, and the first ever to win one - twice.

Jones's Exhibit 10 signing is, on the surface, one of the least consequential roster moves the 76ers will make this offseason. He's not guaranteed a spot, and Exhibit 10 contracts exist specifically to let teams evaluate players without financial commitment.

On the same day as Jones' announcement, Philadelphia and the Flyers unveiled the first architectural renderings of their new arena in South Philadelphia, set to open in 2030 on the site of the old Spectrum, ESPN's Shams Charania reported.

The arena represents a long-term organizational bet on the city as the Sixers make their most aggressive short-term bet yet: Building a roster around LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Jaylen Brown for a championship run.

James will be among several accustomed number-one options, and camp bodies like Jones, a player who has already proven he can contribute winning habits on two different championship rosters in as many years.

Whether Jones actually makes Philadelphia's regular-season roster or ends up back in the G League remains genuinely uncertain.

What isn't uncertain is that a 24-year-old who was waived by an NBA team a year ago now has two championship rings and a training camp invite to play alongside the league's all-time scoring leader, a career that, whatever happens next, is already remarkable on its own terms.