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This article was written by

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Kevin Love, a key member of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2016 championship team, is now actively trying to join former teammate LeBron James in Philadelphia, according to multiple reports, a development that adds a new layer of sting for a Cavaliers franchise that had itself been in the mix for James before he ultimately signed with the 76ers.

Love’s agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, has been in contact with the 76ers’ front office ever since James announced his decision to sign with Philadelphia last month, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Love, now 37, is hoping to reunite with James for one final championship run, a pursuit that has continued for days even as Philadelphia’s roster situation has made a formal signing anything but simple.

A Bond That Dates Back to a Title in Cleveland

Love and James spent four seasons together with the Cavaliers, from 2014 through 2018, reaching the NBA Finals in each of those years and capturing the franchise’s first championship together in 2016. That title, delivered after Cleveland overcame a 3-1 series deficit against the Golden State Warriors, remains one of the most celebrated moments in the franchise’s history, and Love has long been closely associated with that era of Cavaliers basketball alongside James and Kyrie Irving.

The two players have remained close in the years since James left Cleveland, reportedly vacationing together extensively earlier this summer, a detail that has fueled speculation about Love’s interest in following James to Philadelphia. NBA insider Evan Sidery reported on the interest directly, writing, “Kevin Love wants to join the Sixers, which would reunite him with LeBron James before retirement.”

A Roster Puzzle Still Unsolved

Despite the mutual interest, actually completing a deal remains complicated. According to McMenamin’s reporting, the 76ers currently sit just $1.83 million below their first-apron hard cap and already have 14 players on standard contracts, leaving no immediate room to add Love on a veteran minimum deal without first shedding another player’s salary. Philadelphia reached that 14-player limit after signing another former James teammate, guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who agreed to a buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies and subsequently signed a one-year, $3.9 million deal with the 76ers shortly after James’ own signing was finalized.

The most likely candidate for a corresponding roster move is forward Jabari Walker, whose $2.58 million salary includes only $250,000 in guaranteed money, making him the most easily movable piece on Philadelphia’s current roster. Even so, PhillyVoice noted that Walker remains the team’s best rebounder and a genuinely playable rotation piece, complicating the calculus of waiving him purely to accommodate a 37-year-old Love, who was not consistently in Utah’s rotation last season. According to salary cap expert Yossi Gozlan, the earliest Philadelphia could realistically sign Love to a rest-of-season minimum contract, absent a roster move, would be the first week of December, or potentially after February’s trade deadline.

What Love Would Bring to Philadelphia

Love remained a useful contributor for the Utah Jazz last season, averaging 6.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game across roughly 16.6 minutes per contest. Analysts have pointed to his floor-spacing ability as a potential fit alongside Philadelphia’s crowded frontcourt, where the 76ers currently rely on Joel Embiid as their starting center, backed up by younger options in Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti, neither of whom offers the same outside shooting or offensive spacing that Love could theoretically provide. Analysts have suggested Love’s shooting could pull opposing centers away from the rim, opening driving lanes for James, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and V.J. Edgecombe.

A Career Built Across Multiple Franchises

Love entered the NBA in 2008 with the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he starred through 2014, earning the league’s Most Improved Player award in 2011, the same season he made his first All-Star appearance. He was later traded to Cleveland, where he teamed with James to reach four consecutive NBA Finals and win the 2016 title. Since departing Cleveland, Love has spent time with the Miami Heat and, most recently, the Utah Jazz, adding to a career resume that now includes five All-Star selections, two All-NBA nods and an NBA championship.

A Second Sting for Cleveland

For Cavaliers fans, Love’s pursuit of a reunion with James in Philadelphia lands as a fresh reminder of the franchise’s own unsuccessful effort to bring James back to Cleveland this offseason. James had drawn out his free agency decision for nearly a month before ultimately choosing Philadelphia, a move ESPN’s Dave McMenamin described as considered a surprising one around the league at the time, given the Cavaliers’ own reported interest in a potential reunion. With Love, one of the most beloved figures from Cleveland’s championship era, now actively lobbying to join James in Philadelphia rather than pursuing any reunion of his own with the Cavaliers, the development has added an extra layer of disappointment for a fan base still processing James’ decision to sign elsewhere.

Philadelphia’s Star-Studded Offseason Continues

Love’s pursuit fits into a broader pattern that has defined Philadelphia’s offseason since landing James. The 76ers’ roster overhaul began with the blockbuster acquisition of former Boston Celtics champion Jaylen Brown, a move that helped position the franchise as a legitimate contender to attract James in the first place. Since James’ signing became official, Philadelphia has continued adding pieces connected to his career, including Caldwell-Pope, underscoring how directly James’ arrival has reshaped the franchise’s roster construction throughout the summer.

With Philadelphia’s roster currently at its 14-player limit and no immediate mechanism to add Love without a corresponding move, his path onto the 76ers’ roster appears more likely to materialize later in the season, whether through a in-season roster adjustment, an injury opening a need, or a trade deadline transaction, rather than an immediate offseason signing. For now, Love’s public interest in joining James stands as confirmation that his desire to chase one more championship alongside his former Cleveland teammate remains very much alive, even if the logistics of making it happen in Philadelphia remain unresolved heading into training camp.

Martha Stewart’s account of a recent dinner party encounter with Meghan Markle is facing a direct challenge from the person who hosted the event, who says Stewart’s version of what the Duchess of Sussex discussed that night is simply not accurate.

Stewart, 85, told People in a new interview that she and Meghan were both guests at a dinner party in California shortly after the Duchess returned from a trip to Europe that included a reunion with King Charles III. “She had just gotten back from the palace,” Stewart said. “I didn’t talk to her really more than to say a couple words, but I know she was talking about it.”

A Host Offers a Different Account

That characterization did not sit well with the person who organized the dinner, who told Page Six that Stewart’s recollection of events was inaccurate. “I sat next to Meghan at the dinner party and this account of what happened is simply untrue,” the host said. “Meghan didn’t talk about her European vacation other than to say the family had a great time.” The host did not elaborate further on what else was discussed that evening.

According to a separate account relayed to People, the same host said Meghan has long admired Stewart and had enjoyed the brief opportunity to meet her at the dinner, a detail that suggests the interaction, whatever was actually said, was a positive one from Meghan’s side regardless of the disputed specifics.

What Stewart’s Comment Actually Referred To

Stewart’s reference to Meghan having “just gotten back from the palace” appears tied to Meghan and Prince Harry’s broader European trip this summer, during which the couple and their two children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, met with King Charles and Queen Camilla on July 10 at Highgrove House, the king’s country estate in England. Notably, the reunion took place at Highgrove rather than at any formal royal palace, a distinction some outlets have pointed to in questioning how literally to interpret Stewart’s “palace” reference. Newsweek reported that Meghan was actually asked about her European vacation more broadly during the dinner conversation, rather than specifically about the Highgrove meeting, suggesting some headlines characterizing the exchange as Meghan “boasting” about the royal reunion may have overstated what Stewart’s comments actually established.

The Highgrove gathering marked the first time Charles had seen his American-based grandchildren in person since 2022, when the family last gathered for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The king, who has continued treatment for cancer, met with the family alongside Camilla in what royal commentators described as a significant, if carefully managed, step toward repairing years of estrangement between Harry, Meghan and the wider royal family.

Meghan and Harry’s broader summer travels extended beyond the United Kingdom as well. According to Town & Country, the family also spent time in Melides, Portugal, sometimes described as the “Hamptons of Portugal,” a destination the Sussexes have visited regularly in recent years and reportedly purchased a home in back in 2024. A source told People in late July that Harry and Meghan are drawn to Portugal specifically because it allows Archie and Lilibet to, in the source’s words, “simply be kids.”

Stewart Also Weighed In on Meghan’s Netflix Show

Beyond the disputed dinner party account, Stewart used the same interview to offer a pointed assessment of Meghan’s broader career transition, referencing the Duchess’s Netflix lifestyle series “With Love, Meghan,” in which Meghan shares cooking, baking, decorating and entertaining tips. “If you’re an actress, it’s hard to then transition to a princess and then from a princess into a homemaking guru on a television show,” Stewart said. “It doesn’t sort of follow. So go from there.” The remark, delivered by one of the most established figures in the American homemaking and lifestyle media space, was widely interpreted as at least mildly skeptical of Meghan’s pivot into the same general content category Stewart herself has built a decades-long career around.

A Story That Fits a Familiar Pattern

Newsweek noted that the sequence of events, an initial celebrity claim followed by a competing account from someone else present, echoes a recurring pattern in coverage of Meghan and Harry dating back years. The outlet pointed to Harry’s own remarks during a 2023 interview promoting his memoir “Spare,” in which he said that every time he had tried to address issues privately, there had been “briefings and leakings and planting of stories” against him and his wife, criticizing what he characterized as the royal family’s informal motto of “never complain, never explain.” Whether or not this particular dinner party dispute reflects that same dynamic, the underlying pattern, dueling and often contradictory anonymous or semi-anonymous accounts of private social interactions involving Meghan, has recurred repeatedly across royal media coverage over the past several years.

A History of Disputed Claims

This is not the first time a report involving Meghan has been directly and publicly disputed by another party close to the situation. Kensington Palace has previously issued rare, direct denials of specific claims about Meghan, including a 2018 report alleging a heated argument between Meghan and Catherine, Princess of Wales, ahead of Meghan’s wedding, which a palace spokesperson at the time flatly denied, saying, “This never happened.” That history of competing narratives, official or informal, underscores the difficulty of establishing a fully agreed-upon account whenever conflicting versions of a private social interaction involving Meghan become public.

What Remains Unclear

For now, the central factual dispute, whether Meghan discussed her European trip and royal reunion at length during the California dinner, as Stewart suggested, or only briefly mentioned that the family had a good time, as the event’s host maintains, remains unresolved, with both accounts attributed to named or clearly identified sources rather than anonymous insiders. Neither Meghan nor her representatives have publicly commented on either version of events, and it remains unclear whether any further clarification will be offered as the story continues to circulate across entertainment and royal media coverage this week.