Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
LeBron James is considering moving to the 76ers' practice facility
LeBron James caught some heat for taking a helicopter from New York to the 76ers’ practice in Philadelphia. He’s seemingly been made aware of that backlash.
A clip making the rounds on social media shows LeBron James working out in a gym during an Instagram Live video and complaining about the trip from New York to Philadelphia.
According to the NBA legend, he is thinking about getting a place in Philly because “it’s a long commute.”
A video of LeBron James complaining about his helicopter commute from New York to Philadelphia went viral on social media
During the NBA offseason, LeBron signed a two-year contract with the 76ers this summer on a deal that’s essentially the veteran’s minimum. Instead of living in Philly, though, he’s been living in Manhattan and taking a chopper to the team’s practice facility in Camden.
The helicopter, however, belongs to Fanatics and is available to LeBron through his endorsement deal.
“The deal we signed with Fanatics almost three years ago includes access to their corporate aviation,” a LeBron spokesperson told the Inquirer.
The nature of that deal, however — and the recent controversy involving the Los Angeles Clippers circumventing NBA salary cap rules to pay Kawhi Leonard — led some NBA fans to call for investigative journalist Pablo Torre to get involved.
Torre did look into LeBron’s deal with Fanatics and the use of the helicopter on a recent episode of his Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast — the same show that he broke the Clippers news on.
“I have never seen a big announcement like this broken by a trading card company,” said Torre on his show.
“But here it was. The trading card platform owned by Fanatics breaks the news of LeBron signing, and I just got to point out that league sources have been wondering, I am told, former Sixers owner Michael Rubin flipped LeBron, convinced him to sign with the Sixers at Fanatics Fest, and to that, of course, when we ask Sixers PR for comment, they didn’t reply.”
He don’t want ole Pablo looking any further 🤣
— Old Man Canton (@AnthonyCanton_3) October 20, 2026
In a comment to ESPN, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he saw nothing wrong with the arrangement “as long as it’s just a deal between the Fanatics and LeBron and no team is involved.”
The Sixers open their season Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden against the defending champion New York Knicks.