Dave Portnoy says LeBron James took a league-minimum 76ers contract because of a Fanatics side deal with Michael Rubin, calling it illegal and comparing it straight to Kawhi Leonard.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy did not soften the charge. In a social media post dated October 6, 2026, he argued that LeBron James signed a league-minimum deal with the Philadelphia 76ers only because billionaire Fanatics owner Michael Rubin is running a side arrangement with him.
Portnoy argued the setup lets James live in New York City, fly in and out for practice, and still collect the basketball paycheck, and that the NBA will look the other way.
James joined the 76ers in the past offseason on a league-minimum contract worth $3.87 million for the season. That figure is a fraction of what a player of his stature usually commands. Portnoy’s point was simple: the real money, he claimed, sits elsewhere.
Portnoy put the accusation in plain terms on social media.
"He basically took that contract (league minimum deal with the 76ers) because Rubin is doing a side deal with him,"
He followed it with the comparison that drives the story.
"He flies in and out. It’s illegal. It’s basically what Kawhi did. But the NBA won’t look into LeBron."
James has been spotted taking a Fanatics private helicopter to and from practice while choosing to live in New York City rather than Philadelphia. Front Office Sports’ Dan Roberts reported that James has access to Fanatics Aviation as part of his contract with Rubin’s company.
A James spokesperson told Front Office Sports the aviation access is not some secret add-on invented for Philadelphia.
"The deal we signed with Fanatics almost three years ago includes access to their corporate aviation,"
The spokesperson added:
"It’s a feature in many of their deals with their largest athletes and we appreciate their partnership as LeBron splits his time between New York and Philadelphia."
James has worked publicly with Fanatics since 2024. The dollar value of that partnership remains undisclosed. He also holds a Polymarket partnership worth $15 million per year, far more than his 76ers salary.
Michael Rubin is not a current 76ers owner. He sold his stake in the team in 2022, citing the growth of Fanatics and the conflicts that came with it.
"As our Fanatics business has grown, so too have the obstacles I have to navigate to ensure our new businesses don’t conflict with my responsibilities as part-owner of the Sixers,"
Rubin said at the time he would “sadly be selling my stake in the Sixers and shifting from part-owner back to life-long fan.”
Portnoy still sees a side deal. The spokesperson frames the helicopter as a standard perk for Fanatics’ biggest athletes. Those two accounts do not meet in the middle. One describes a contractual amenity. The other describes salary-cap circumvention.
Portnoy’s Kawhi Leonard comparison is not abstract. The Los Angeles Clippers were punished after a scheme that, in the NBA’s eyes, funneled money to Leonard through Aspiration, described as $7 million in cash and $5 million in stock per year. Investigative journalist Pablo Torre was first to surface that arrangement. The Clippers accepted a penalty of five first-round picks. Related coverage has also pointed to a federal probe.
That is the standard Portnoy is invoking. The league took draft capital from the Clippers when it concluded money was moving outside the cap. Portnoy says James is flying Fanatics metal to practice off a minimum deal and that the same league will not open the same kind of review.
No NBA comment on any James-Fanatics-76ers review appears in the available reporting. No filing, no investigation announcement, no denial. Portnoy’s charge sits on the table unanswered by the league.
The structure is easy to see even without Portnoy’s verdict. James takes $3.87 million from Philadelphia. He keeps larger off-court partnerships, including the undisclosed Fanatics deal and the $15 million Polymarket pact. He keeps his home base in New York. Fanatics aviation covers the commute. Rubin, once a Sixers part-owner, is the Fanatics boss on the other side of that relationship.
Portnoy also posted that he would choose Philadelphia over New York every time. The joke wrote itself against James’s actual living arrangement. The larger claim was not about real estate. It was about whether a star can depress his basketball salary while a team-linked business partner sweetens life on the side, and whether the NBA applies one rule to Kawhi’s Clippers and another to LeBron’s 76ers.
Salary-cap rules exist so big-market stars and friendly ownership groups cannot buy advantages with side cash and perks. When the league hammered the Clippers, it said those rules matter. Portnoy’s accusation is that the same rules get softer when the name on the jersey is James.
Fans and taxpayers of league integrity do not need a complicated theory. They need the same enforcement standard for every franchise and every superstar. If helicopter perks and minimum deals stacked on top of billionaire partnerships are fine, say so in public. If they are not, open the books the way the league did when Aspiration entered the Kawhi story.
Star power should not decide which contracts get scrutinized and which ones get a free flight home.
