LeBron James signaled this week that his decision on where he will play for the 2026-27 NBA season is close at hand, telling reporters he does not intend to keep the league waiting much longer as free agency stretches into its third week.

“I won’t hold you guys up too much longer,” James said Thursday, offering the clearest public hint yet that a resolution to one of the most closely watched storylines of the NBA offseason could arrive within days. James informed the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month that he intends to leave the franchise after eight seasons, ending his second stint with the team and setting off a wave of recruiting efforts from franchises across the league.

Five teams have emerged as the clear finalists in the pursuit: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the formal pitching process from all interested teams has now wrapped, with franchises submitting their proposals to James’s agent, Rich Paul, for the 41-year-old star to make his final call. “The voice notes have all been listened to, the rosters are set, the decks are all laid out,” Charania said. “We’ll see when he’s ready to make his decision.”

The pitching process itself has offered clues about how seriously different organizations are treating the pursuit. According to Charania, several teams had their owner, team president or general manager personally record voice memos for Paul to relay to James, rather than leaving the recruiting to coaches or players alone. The Philadelphia 76ers appeared to lean into that approach visibly, with Bob Myers, president of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the ownership group behind the Sixers, appearing directly on Paul’s “Game Over” podcast, which he co-hosts with Max Kellerman.

Not every recruiting pitch has gone smoothly. Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton revealed this week that he made his own attempt to lure James to Indiana before James had even informed the Lakers of his departure, only for the effort to fall flat almost immediately. According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Haliburton said James responded to his recruiting pitch with nothing more than a laughing emoji, effectively ending any serious consideration of the Pacers as a landing spot.

James has continued to offer glimpses into his decision-making process through informal public interactions. Responding to a question from an 11-year-old fan about his free agency, James gave one of his longer public answers on the subject to date. “This is the third time in my career I’ve been a free agent,” James said. “It’s a big decision, not only for myself, but my family as well. This is the last part of my career and where I want to spend the last few years, or last year, or last two years of my NBA career.” He added that he intends to bring the full breadth of his experience to whichever franchise he ultimately joins, saying, “I’m a natural-born leader. I’m going to try to fit into whatever team I go to but also give them all the tools and knowledge I’ve been able to grasp over the last 23 years.”

Speculation surrounding the Warriors in particular has generated its share of unconfirmed signals in recent days. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr playfully told fans stopped at a red light, “We got him,” when asked about the team’s chances of signing James, a remark widely regarded as lighthearted rather than a genuine confirmation. Around the same time, a “Pardon the Interruption” podcast episode was briefly and mistakenly published under the title “Steph Curry Behind LeBron’s Stunning Decision?” before being pulled, fueling further speculation online even though neither Kerr nor the ESPN program is believed to have advance knowledge of James’s actual decision.

James’s unusually long free agency has been shaped in part by his changed financial leverage compared with previous offseasons. Unlike his prior free agency decisions, when James commanded a maximum contract that forced teams to plan their entire roster construction around his signing, James is now expected to sign for a portion of the midlevel exception or possibly even a minimum contract, giving him more flexibility to take his time without holding up other teams’ offseason plans as significantly as in years past. Rather than anchoring a long-term rebuild, James is instead selecting a roster he believes gives him the best chance at a deep playoff run in what could be his final one or two NBA seasons.

James’s decision carries significant ripple effects across the rest of the league. NBA reporter Evan Sidery noted that several top remaining free agents have delayed their own decisions until after James makes his choice, given how his signing could reshape the remaining cap space and roster needs of the teams still in the running. Players including Draymond Green and James Harden have already opted out of their existing contracts in recent weeks, moves that have granted their respective teams additional financial flexibility as they continue pursuing James alongside other offseason priorities.

Historically, James has favored made-for-television announcements when revealing major career decisions, from his 2010 televised special declaring he would join the Miami Heat, to a first-person essay in Sports Illustrated announcing his return to Cleveland in 2014, to a more understated social media post in 2018 confirming his move to the Lakers. With James scheduled to host a live episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast at Fanatics Fest in New York alongside special co-host Tyrese Haliburton, some NBA insiders have speculated that the podcast setting could once again serve as the venue for James to reveal his decision directly to fans, continuing his pattern of controlling the narrative around his own career moves rather than allowing the news to break through a reporter’s social media post.

For now, the five finalist franchises remain in a holding pattern, having completed their formal pitches and left the final decision in James’s hands. With his own comments suggesting an announcement could come soon, the NBA world appears to be entering the final stretch of what has become one of the longest and most closely tracked free agency sagas of James’s storied 23-year career.

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Thursday got ugly for tech stocks, especially for chip makers, and Friday could be about as bad based on Nasdaq futures, which are off again. Investors are finding refuge in dowdier sectors such as consumer staples. An ETF tracking those stocks rose Thursday and is pointing up again premarket.

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Most investors feel safest when they move with the crowd. They buy stocks after prices have surged because everyone else is buying, and panic-sell when markets tumble because everyone else is rushing for the exit. But according to renowned investor and psychologist Fred C. Kelly, this instinct is precisely why the majority of investors fail.

In his classic book, “Why You Win or Lose: The Psychology of Speculation”, Kelly argued that successful investing isn’t about predicting the future better than everyone else—it’s about understanding crowd psychology and resisting the emotional impulses that lead to poor decisions.

Why contrarian investing works

Kelly believed markets are driven as much by human behaviour as by business fundamentals. Investors who simply follow popular opinion often end up buying near market tops and selling close to bottoms.

“If everybody tried to buy when prices are low, then bargains would never exist,” Kelly observed, explaining that opportunities arise only because most people fail to recognise them. According to him, the majority loses because it behaves in the most natural—and emotionally driven—way.

Human psychology matters more than economics

One of Kelly’s central ideas was that investors lose money less because of economic conditions and more because of psychological biases.

He believed investors often sell their best-performing stocks too early while stubbornly holding on to losing investments, hoping they’ll recover. Pride, fear and wishful thinking frequently overpower rational analysis, leading to costly mistakes.

The typical investor’s cycle

Kelly described a familiar pattern of investor behaviour:

• Investors buy cautiously at the beginning of a rally.
• As prices keep rising, confidence turns into overconfidence.
• Greed encourages them to hold on even as valuations become excessive.
• Every decline is dismissed as a buying opportunity.
• Only after widespread pessimism sets in do they finally sell—often near the market bottom.

The four enemies of investment success

Kelly identified four psychological traits that repeatedly derail investors.
Vanity: Investors hate admitting mistakes. Rather than booking losses, they continue holding losing stocks while quickly selling profitable ones to protect their ego.Greed: Greed destroys patience. Investors chase expensive stocks during euphoric markets instead of waiting for attractive valuations.

The will to believe: Hope often pushes investors into speculative bets, convincing them that risky stocks will somehow deliver extraordinary returns despite weak fundamentals.

Blind logic: Kelly argued that what feels logical in markets is often wrong. Buying after strong rallies and selling after prolonged declines may appear sensible because recent trends seem likely to continue, but history shows that such behaviour frequently results in buying high and selling low.

Why patience beats excitement

Kelly advised investors to avoid buying stocks simply because they’ve fallen sharply. Instead, he recommended waiting until a stock demonstrates that selling pressure has truly exhausted itself.

He also warned against assuming that a stock is cheap merely because it trades below its previous highs. A lower price alone doesn’t necessarily make a stock a bargain.

Not everyone is suited for the stock market

Kelly believed successful investing requires emotional flexibility and discipline. Investors who become emotionally attached to their opinions or refuse to adapt to changing market conditions often struggle.

He also cautioned against expecting quick riches without preparation, arguing that the stock market rewards patience, study and temperament far more than luck.

The bottom line

Fred Kelly’s investing philosophy remains remarkably relevant even decades later. In an era dominated by social media trends, momentum investing and fear of missing out, his advice serves as a reminder that the biggest edge in investing often comes not from superior information, but from superior behaviour.

His message was to understand the crowd, learn from its mistakes and avoid following it blindly. Long-term investment success belongs not to those who react emotionally, but to those who remain patient, disciplined and willing to think independently.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

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IDBI Bank on Saturday reported a standalone net profit of Rs 2,115 crore for the April-June quarter of the ongoing financial year 2027, marking a 5% year-on-year (YoY) increase from Rs 2,007 crore a year ago.

The bank’s net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expenses, rose more than 10% YoY to Rs 3,486 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 3,166 crore in Q1 FY26.

IDBI Bank’s asset quality slightly worsened since the March quarter, although it improved on a YoY basis. The lender’s net NPA ratio stood at 0.16%, as against 0.15% in Q4 FY26 and 0.21% in Q1 FY26.

Provisions and contingencies stood at a negative Rs 637 crore, as against a negative Rs 179 crore in the year-ago period. Capital adequacy ratio, meanwhile, increased to 26.92% during the quarter under review, while return on assets stood at 1.89%.

Also read | HDFC Bank Q1 Results: Net profit rises 5% YoY to Rs 19,060 crore, NII up 7%

IDBI Bank’s total deposits grew 10% YoY to Rs 3.26 lakh crore, while net advances rose 22% YoY to Rs 2.59 lakh crore. Credit deposit ratio stood at 79.5%, marking an improvement by 810 bps YoY and 644 bps QoQ. Net interest margin (NIM) stood at 3.61%. The lender’s total balance sheet increased 10% YoY to Rs 4.44 lakh crore.
The company’s current account savings account ratio stood at 43.64%, marking a 99 bps fall since June last year. CASA, meanwhile, grew 7% YoY to Rs 1.42 lakh crore in Q1 FY27.

IDBI Bank share price

IDBI Bank shares gained around 2% to close at Rs 87 apiece on Friday. The shares of the company gained around 5% in one week, but have fallen around 4% in one month. Overall, the stock is down more than 16% in 2026 so far.
Also read | Yes Bank Q1 Results: Net profit surges 34% YoY to Rs 1,071 crore; NII advances 18%

Over a longer term, IDBI Bank shares have delivered a negative return of 13% over one year, but positive returns of 50% in three years and 130% in five years. The company has a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 93,546 crore.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)