LeBron James signed a veteran minimum contract with the Philadelphia 76ers this summer, a wild move after he just made over $52 million with the Los Angeles Lakers last season. But that’s not the only thing raising eyebrows around the league. Turns out, he’s using the Fanatics helicopter to zip between Philadelphia and New York City during the season, and yeah, people are definitely talking.
The Chopper Questions Pile Up After Kawhi Leonard’s Mess
This whole helicopter situation immediately put LeBron under a microscope, thanks to some of his peers. Kawhi Leonard, for example, just cost the Los Angeles Clippers a boatload of draft picks, fines, and suspensions for his own secret deals. With Fanatics being owned by Michael Rubin, the former 76ers owner, and LeBron taking a vet minimum to play in Philly, the red flags went up. Folks started hitting up Pablo Torre, fresh off his exhaustive investigation into Leonard, asking him and his team to dig into LeBron and the Sixers for possible cap circumvention. Torre finally addressed all the speculation on his podcast Thursday morning, and what he found is pretty interesting.
The Tail Number That Has Everyone Buzzing
Here’s the timeline that makes things even more curious. LeBron actually signed a deal with Fanatics way back in January 2024. The company even put out a press release saying that the deal “apparently it includes access to their corporate aviation.” This means James had access to the Fanatics helicopter two years ago, even re-signing with the Lakers a few months later in July and playing two more full seasons in Los Angeles before bouncing to Philly. But the plot thickens. On July 17th of this year, LeBron dropped the phrase “trust the process” at Fanatics Fest. He swore it meant nothing, but Torre uncovered something else happening that very day: someone filed paperwork to change Rubin’s helicopter’s tail number from N223KR to N6FN. N6FN. Think about it. James wore No. 6 for Team USA, with the Miami Heat, and for a couple of seasons in the middle of his Lakers tenure. Now he’s wearing No. 23 with the 76ers, but that N6FN is a pretty blatant potential nod to him, isn’t it?
So, what’s the ultimate verdict after all this digging? Just like when Bloomberg dug into LeBron’s $300 million in loans from Guggenheim, Torre’s investigation suggests this is largely “rich guy stuff.” Fanatics wants to be in business with LeBron, so they’re letting him use the chopper. They did the same when he was with the Lakers. It’s likely Fanatics has already made back the cost of those helicopter rides in pure brand recognition alone. It looks like, for the 24th straight year, LeBron James has once again dodged a major controversy. So, even with the chopper rides and the curious tail number, it seems the King keeps doing his thing.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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