Philly Needs Anyone Else's Helicopter for LeBron, Not Fanatics

The news first broke that LeBron James would be living in NYC and commuting to Philly via helicopter, according to www.barstoolsports.com. Everybody immediately had a pretty bad feeling about it. It just seems like such an unnecessary risk to take.

I get that LeBron initially envisioned himself playing for the Knicks, so he was locked into living in New York from the start. But the idea of going 2,000 feet into the air every day to get to practice just seems a bit over the top. The specific helicopter model, flight schedule, and safety record are not in the source.

At the end of the day, it is what it is. Helicopters go up in the air every single day regardless of whether or not LeBron James is in one. And he'll always have a driver on hand to get him back and forth to the city in shitty conditions.

But the commute itself was never the real problem. The problem is who owns the chopper.

FANATICS ENTERS THE PICTURE

Now we are finding out that the helicopter LeBron will be using actually belongs to Fanatics.

And that changes everything.

People are immediately going to try to frame this as part of some sort of shady deal Fanatics worked out with LeBron to sign in Philly. They are going to make some comparisons to the Kawhi situation with the Clippers. Any actual deal or agreement between Fanatics and LeBron is not confirmed — but the speculation is already writing itself.

That's not what worries me about this news, though.

It's the fact that literally everything that comes from Fanatics sucks. You order a jersey from Fanatics and you'll be lucky if it comes in the mail 7 weeks later with the right logo on it. The material sucks, there is never any consistency with the number and lettering, and chances are they don't even have the jersey you're looking for in stock — but at least they have a bunch of designs the team never actually wears available.

Fanatics has been able to completely take over the sports merchandising world by doing as little as humanly possible. And good for them. Clearly it appears to be a successful business strategy.