Pablo Torre is looking into LeBron James’ helicopter rides with Fanatics. But the people bringing him tips make the story more intriguing.
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“We are very interested. We’re getting tips from NBA owners,” Torre told Front Office Sports.
League sources had started asking questions of their own. Now the commissioner has weighed in.
Torre’s name carries weight here. His podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, won a Pulitzer Prize in May for its reporting on the Clippers’ salary cap circumvention scandal. So when he turned his attention to the Fanatics-branded helicopter that flies James to Philadelphia, people noticed.
That earlier investigation centered on Kawhi Leonard’s $28 million endorsement agreement with Aspiration, a company backed by Clippers owner Steve Ballmer that also had a sponsorship deal with the team. Torre reported that the agreement amounted to a “no-show” job intended to funnel money to Leonard outside the salary cap. The reporting prompted an NBA investigation, and the league handed down penalties against the Clippers in September.
The connection to James is the question of who arranged the benefit. Players can negotiate their own endorsement agreements, but teams cannot use outside companies to supplement a player’s compensation beyond the cap. Silver’s position is that James’ helicopter access is permissible as part of an independent Fanatics deal. It would become a rules issue if the Sixers helped arrange it.
That distinction also separates the questions surrounding James from the Clippers case. Torre’s interest does not establish that Philadelphia participated in the arrangement, and Front Office Sports reported that the NBA was not investigating the helicopter deal.
James has brushed it off. “I’ve done it before; just another way of transportation,” he said. Adam Silver has gone further.
“I would just say in the case of LeBron and that helicopter, he has a deal with Fanatics,” Silver reasoned in the latest episode of The Pat McAfee Show. “It’s perfectly appropriate if part of his deal is they’re gonna supply a helicopter to him as long as it’s just a deal between the Fanatics and LeBron and no team is involved; there’s no rules issue there whatsoever.”
Silver’s argument is also essentially what was previously reported by Front Office Sports. A spokesperson for James said his Fanatics agreement, signed almost three years ago, gives him access to the company’s corporate aviation. The spokesperson called it a feature of many Fanatics deals with its top athletes.
James lives in New York and uses the helicopter to get to Philadelphia for practices and home games. One-way charters between the two cities are estimated to cost about $4,000 to $10,000. James doesn’t pay for any of it.
The questions surrounding the arrangement stem partly from Michael Rubin’s ties to Philadelphia. The Fanatics founder and CEO sold his minority stake in the Sixers’ parent company in 2022, saying the growth of his business had made it impossible to continue in both roles.
At the 2024 MIT Sloan conference, he explained that Fanatics’ involvement in sports betting and its relationships with NBA players as investors created conflicts with team ownership. Those comments concerned his reasons for leaving ownership, not James’ helicopter access.
Torre’s reporting has focused on whether Rubin helped persuade James to join Philadelphia. On the October 15 episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, he said league sources had been asking whether the former Sixers investor played a role in the decision.
“League sources have been wondering, I am told, if former Sixers minority owner Michael Rubin flipped LeBron, convinced him to sign with the Sixers at Fanatics Fest,” Torre said.
The sequence began on July 17, when James appeared onstage at Fanatics Fest and said he wanted to join a team that “trusts the process.” The phrase immediately drew attention because of its association with the Sixers, although James denied at the time that he was hinting at a move to Philadelphia.
Torre pointed to another development that day. According to his reporting, the helicopter’s tail number changed to N6FN. He suggested the “6” could reference James’ former jersey number, while “FN” stood for Fanatics. That interpretation added to his questions about the timing, but it did not establish that the Sixers arranged the helicopter benefit.
A week later, on July 24, James signed a two-year, $8 million contract with Philadelphia. Fanatics-owned Topps posted a promotional Sixers trading card announcing the move moments before ESPN’s Shams Charania reported it.
Torre highlighted the unusual sequence as a possible indication that Fanatics knew about James’ decision before it became public. Advance knowledge alone, however, would not violate league rules.
Additionally, he made clear that he was not presenting those connections as proof of wrongdoing. “This is not me alleging there is cap circumvention,” he said, describing the timeline instead as “a pretty funny series of apparent coincidences” involving a helicopter people had been asking about.
The distinction matters because James’ Fanatics partnership predates his Sixers contract. According to Front Office Sports, the agreement was reached in January 2024 and included access to the company’s corporate aviation. A spokesperson for James said that benefit appears in many of Fanatics’ agreements with its biggest athletes.
Silver’s October 20 comments addressed where such an arrangement would cross the line. A player can negotiate an independent endorsement deal, including benefits such as transportation. A team cannot arrange outside compensation to supplement what it pays that player under the salary cap.
“That’s not allowed,” Silver said when asked about teams arranging third-party deals. “I mean, in a cap system, because then, you know, whatever the limit is that they can pay that player, the team could then come in and say, ‘But on the side, the following companies, we’ll arrange to do deals with you.’ That would be an easy way to circumvent the cap.”
He applied the same distinction to James’ flights, saying there was “no rules issue there whatsoever” as long as the agreement was between James and Fanatics, without team involvement. “A team can’t play any role in one of their players getting a deal with a separate sponsor,” Silver added. “But if players have direct relationships with a sponsor, that’s absolutely their right.”
As of October 20, a source familiar with the matter told Front Office Sports that the NBA was not investigating the helicopter arrangement. Torre has raised questions about the timing and Rubin’s possible influence, but the public reporting has not established that the Sixers arranged James’ Fanatics benefits.
That remains the distinction between an independent sponsorship perk and prohibited compensation.