LeBron James’s long-anticipated farewell tour begins Tuesday night with a road game in New York – or, as he’ll call it for the next six-to-nine months, home.
Now part of his fourth NBA team as he enters his 24th pro season, the 41-year-old could be putting himself to bed shortly after making his Philadelphia 76ers debut against the defending-champion Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
While his new Sixers teammates fly back to the City of Brotherly Love, he’ll likely return to his secret new Manhattan lair to be carefully preserved for Thursday’s ‘home’ opener some 100 miles to the southwest.
It’s an unusually easy commute for James following his unexplained decision to put his home and home court on opposite sides of New Jersey this season.
To circumnavigate the country’s most densely populated state, James’s ridiculous plan will see him helicopter between New York, where he has repeatedly refused to sign, and Philadelphia, where he now refuses to live.
It’s a roughly 45-minute jaunt costing at a few thousand dollars per trip, which – it should be noted – won’t be coming out of his own deep pocket.
Thanks to a preexisting contract with Fanatics, the sports apparel giant owned by ex-Sixers minority owner and Philly native Michael Rubin, James has a small air force at his disposal. As a result, King James can chopper directly to Philadelphia or the Sixers’ practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, while barely dipping a proverbial toe into the Delaware Valley below.
For James, it’s a departure from his successful stint in Los Angeles, where he was all too happy to launch a Hollywood production studio and send his children to prestigious local schools. Now, with his family across the country, James is suddenly living the life of a reclusive billionaire. And just like ‘The Decision,’ James’s widely criticized 2010 TV special announcing his signing with Miami Heat, this choice shows him to be completely out of touch.
LeBron James is spotted arriving in New York at a helipad on the west side of Manhattan
Ohio native LeBron James sits with Cleveland fans as he and the Cavs celebrate their 2016 title
Khloe Kardashian, Tristan Thompson, LeBron James and Savannah Brinson are seen at Nobu on July 09, 2018 in Los Angeles. James was frequently spotted on LA’s elite social scene
That James is less concerned with public perception at this point of his career is hardly a surprise. His singular determination to win a fifth NBA title before retirement became evident when he took a 93-percent pay cut to play for a contender, which the Sixers certainly appear to be.
After years of falling short with a roster built around often injured center Joel Embiid, Philadelphia added 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown from the rival Boston Celtics to a starting lineup that already includes the dangerously overlooked backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. Now, with James and Brown playing for coach Nick Nurse, the 76ers have joined the defending-champion Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs among the favorites to win the 2027 NBA Finals.
It’s enough to make Philadelphians forget about James’s subtle rejection.
As was the case when he arrived in LA back in 2018, local murals depicting the four-time MVP have sprouted in and around Philadelphia. Only unlike Lakerland, where Kobe Bryant loyalists defaced a few James renderings in deference to the team’s former star, the community response has been uncharacteristically positive from Philadelphians.
Artist Chenlin Cai’s mural in Chinatown struck a chord with locals following a years-long battle over the Sixers’ controversial efforts to erect a new arena on the edge of the 155-year-old neighborhood.
Artist Chenlin Cai’s mural in Chinatown struck a chord with locals following a battle over the Sixers’ efforts to erect a new arena on the edge of the 155-year-old neighborhood
The mural at the heart of Philadelphia’s Chinatown has attracted attention among locals
‘While I was painting, passersby constantly stopped to take photos and chat with me,’ Cai told The Daily Mail in an email. ‘They were full of compliments when they heard about the concepts and visual elements behind the piece.’
The mural recreates AP photographer Morry Gash’s iconic 2010 image of James and his then-Heat teammate Dwyane Wade finishing off a fast break against the Milwaukee Bucks. Only in Cai’s rendering, James is wearing a Sixers jersey while Wade is replaced with a statue of Benjamin Franklin – who proudly inhabited Philadelphia for the better part of seven decades.
James’s exposure to Philadelphia will be more limited, but Cai remains hopeful he’ll bring his talents to Chinatown.
‘Everyone hopes LeBron might visit and see [the mural] in person one day – it would bring incredible foot traffic and business opportunities to Chinatown,’ Cai continued. ‘That was my original vision for this project.
‘Over the past few years, the 76ers arena proposal has caused a lot of controversy. Through this mural, I wanted to show the public that while Chinatown opposes the arena, we still love basketball and the city’s sports culture. LeBron is more than just a superstar; his influence can help [the community] connect with others, bringing new energy and vitality to Chinatown.’
Fortunately, Chinatown has successfully dodged the wrecking ball. Instead, the Sixers now plan to share a new arena with the NHL’s Flyers alongside their current home in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.
Of course, the Sixers’ future home is of no concern to James. By the time the new building’s doors open in 2030, he’ll likely be enshrined at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Cai’s mural recreates AP photographer Morry Gash’s iconic 2010 image of James and his then-Heat teammate Dwyane Wade finishing off a fast break against the Milwaukee Bucks
Chenlin Chai (kneeling) poses with others in front of his popular mural in Philly’s Chinatown
To be fair to James, he’s hardly the first NBA figure to keep his team’s home city at arm’s length. Red Auerbach, the architect of the Celtics dynasty, never lived in Boston full time, instead keeping a preferred home in Washington DC.
James won’t even be the first NBA star to live in New York while working in Philadelphia. His friend and coach with the Lakers, JJ Redick, spent two years as a Sixers player living in Brooklyn and driving the two hours back and forth each way.
Six decades earlier, Philadelphia Warriors center and hometown hero Wilt Chamberlain commuted by train back to Manhattan, where he had an apartment on Central Park West. And when the Big Dipper wasn’t riding the rails, he was flying down the Turnpike in a purple Cadillac at around 100mph, friend and former NBA center Tom Hoover recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Chamberlain’s wild commute was abandoned in 1962 when the Warriors moved to San Francisco. And when he returned to the city in 1965 as a member of the 76ers, team owner Ike Richman instructed the basketball legend to stay at his own home in upscale Elkins Park.
Significantly, Redick and Chamberlain both had practical reasons to keep a foot in New York, where the former had two children in school and the latter owned a Harlem night club that relied on his presence to attract customers.
James, it seems, has no such excuse and simply prefers living in New York, like some 140 or so other billionaires who have helped to make the city so unaffordable. In doing so, he not only risks angering Philadelphians, but everyday New Yorkers frustrated by noisy helicopters and the pollution they bring to lower Manhattan.
Stop The Chop NY/NJ has 5,437 petition signatures ‘to ban nonessential helicopter traffic’
Philadelphia Warriors center and hometown hero Wilt Chamberlain commuted by train back to Manhattan, where he had an apartment on Central Park West. He’d also drive back and forth
Sixers guard and Brooklyn resident JJ Redick arrives at a ‘road’ game against the Nets in 2019
The city’s mayor Zohran Mamdani is currently facing pressure to follow through on campaign promises to regulate nonessential helicopter traffic, which James is now coming to symbolize in the city’s growing class war. One group, Stop The Chop NY/NJ, has 5,437 signatures on a petition ‘to ban nonessential helicopter traffic from the two City-owned heliports.’
Helicopters present other risks, as Bryant’s fans are all too aware after the 2020 crash that claimed his life as well as the lives of his daughter Gianna and seven others in Southern California. James knows this danger as well as anyone after famously leading his Lakers teammates in an impromptu prayer upon learning of the tragedy aboard a team flight.
And then there are the harsh realities of New York winters, which offer the kinds of icy conditions, snowstorms and crosswinds that make helicopter travel risky if not altogether impossible.
Obviously, there are also inherent risks with driving on the Turnpike or simply living in Philadelphia, although the city has seen a 23.3-percent drop in homicides and 3.5-percent decline in violent crime this year, according to local police.
But James’ real mistake has less to do with the dangers of helicopters, Turnpike traffic or eating at Wawa. It’s really a question of etiquette.
In New York, he’s another intruding billionaire at a time when the city is busy worshipping the first Knicks team to win a title in 53 years. And in Philadelphia, where long-suffering fans have waited 43 seasons for another Larry O’Brien Trophy, James is already rebuffing a city eager to embrace him.
‘The entire city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania are absolutely ecstatic about you joining the team,’ Cai said he would tell James, if given the chance. ‘We have been waiting for this championship for so long! We also can’t wait to see you visiting local communities. Please come and see us in Chinatown – you will be amazed by just how passionate and excited the fans here are.
‘We are truly looking forward to LeBron’s visit!’
It may be a long wait.
