Let's be honest with ourselves: Part of the concern basketball fans have with LeBron James' helicopter commute to Philadelphia games and practices is a shared PTSD from the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. Those emotional scars remain.
While fans in Philadelphia and beyond have made a big deal of LeBron commuting from a home in New York to Philadelphia via helicopter, his comments downplayed it, via Tony Jones at The Athletic.
"Yeah, I've done it before," James said. "Just another, just another way of transportation. That's all."
LeBron has been using a helicopter — provided by the sports apparel company Fanatics, according to Pablo Torre Finds Out — to commute from New York to the 76ers practice facility in Camden, N.J.
As the Dan LeBatard show pointed out, LeBron chose the 76ers, not Philadelphia. For Philly fans, that's not much of a distinction, but it is one. LeBron isn't the first person to do this commute, as noted by Jones former 76ers guard and current Lakers coach JJ Redick used to live in New York, although he hired a car service to do it. That drive is around two hours (more on bad traffic days), by helicopter, it's more like half an hour.
LeBron isn't changing his plans, and he is unconcerned about the discourse around his commute.
Check out LeBron's official debut as a 76er on Tuesday when he makes a shorter commute to Madison Square Garden with his teammates for the season opener, trying to spoil ring night for Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks, a game you can watch on NBC and Peacock. It's the anchor game of a triple-header — Celtics at Pistons at 3 p.m. Eastern, and Thunder at Spurs at 9:30 p.m. Eastern — with all the games shown on NBC and streaming on Peacock.