Adam Silver on LeBron’s Helicopter Perk: ‘Perfectly Appropriate’

In the wake of the Kawhi Leonard salary cap scandal, the free use of a Fanatics helicopter by LeBron James to commute between Philadelphia and New York has raised questions, particularly given that Fanatics founder Michael Rubin was previously a minority owner of the 76ers.

Pablo Torre, who broke the Leonard story, told Front Office Sports during the Tuned In summit earlier this month that he’s received messages from NBA owners asking him to explain James’s deal, but he didn’t say whether he will publish anything on the matter.

The league apparently sees no issue. A source familiar with the matter tells FOS there is no NBA investigation into the matter, and Adam Silver made his view clear in an interview with Pat McAfee on Tuesday ahead of the NBA’s regular season tipoff. 

“I’m not crazy about stories focused on things that are happening off the floor,” Silver said. “But I get it, you know, journalists are doing their jobs. I would just say in the case of LeBron and that helicopter, he has a deal with Fanatics.”

Silver said “it’s perfectly appropriate” if part of James’s deal is that Fanatics will “supply a helicopter to him.” As long as it’s just a deal between Fanatics and James, with no team involved, “there’s no rules issue there whatsoever.”

“A team can’t play any role in one of their players getting a deal with a separate sponsor,” Silver said. “But if players have direct relationships with a sponsor, that’s absolutely their right.”

Tracy McGrady, the seven-time NBA All-Star who is now a studio analyst for NBC Sports, also has no issue with James’s helicopter perk. “What’s the problem?” McGrady told FOS editor-in-chief Daniel Roberts during an upcoming episode of Portfolio Players. “This is LeBron, bro.”

Rubin, the Fanatics founder and CEO, was a 76ers minority investor until 2022, when he sold his stake in parent company Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. At the time, Rubin told Yaron Weitzman, then of Fox Sports, that Fanatics had grown so much that it “became no longer possible for me to run it and officially be part of the Sixers.” Rubin also said he would continue to support the 76ers and help “in whatever small way I can.” 

Weitzman questioned what that might look like since Rubin no longer needed to adhere to NBA rules. He cited a source saying Rubin “can be a competitive advantage” and cited multiple sources saying the league office had told 76ers majority owner Josh Harris that Rubin would be able to help the team more than ever.

Fanatics and James maintain there is nothing untoward. A Fanatics source told FOS earlier this month that James began using the company’s aviation as part of his broader deal with the company, reached in January 2024, more than two years before he signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the 76ers. A spokesperson for James told FOS the 2024 deal with Fanatics included “access to their corporate aviation” and said that perk is a “feature in many of their deals with their largest athletes.”

During his appearance on McAfee’s show Tuesday, Silver drew a distinction between James’s helicopter perk and what happened with Leonard. There, an investigation conducted by outside law firm Wachtell Lipton determined the Clippers illegally circumvented the salary cap by helping Leonard earn millions of dollars through endorsement deals with four companies: Aspiration, Daktronics, Boingo Wireless, and Lockton Insurance. The probe led to a yearlong suspension for owner Steve Ballmer, a $30 million fine for the Clippers, and the docking of five first-round draft picks.

In Tuesday’s interview with McAfee, Silver made clear that a team negotiating side deals for a player with a third party is “not allowed.” 

“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.”