Carmelo Anthony isn’t buying the noise around LeBron James’ helicopter arrangement with Fanatics, and he made that clear while going after journalist Pablo Torre and unnamed NBA owners on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast.
Anthony’s message was blunt: if owners have a problem, they should say it with their names attached. He pushed back on the idea that LeBron’s transportation setup between New York and Philadelphia deserved the level of attention it’s getting.
“To me, then, y’all ns are taking that serious, too. I’m taking a chopper and getting from New York to Philly at 6:00, 6:30 in the morning. You ns ain’t even up yet.”
He then turned directly toward Torre.
“So, Pablo, why the fk you talking about? Your snitching a.
The owners are snitching. And I can say you are in cahoots, PT, because you are getting compensated for going to get these stories.
So, I can flip it on you, Pablo. You just snitched on yourself.”
Anthony’s criticism didn’t stop there. He argued that anonymous owners shouldn’t be floating concerns in the background while expecting others to take the fallout.
“The owners are saying, so if it comes down to it, you know what they’re going to say? You’re subpoenaed to tell us which owners.
So, you got to take the stand and tell us which owners. Don’t do that.
Say, ‘The owner of the Charlotte Hornets and the owners of the New York Knicks are wondering X, Y, Z about LeBron’s transportation.'”
He also drew a sharp line between open criticism and hidden sourcing.
“Fk all that journalism st. I respect the journalism, but if we going to keep it a buck, keep it a buck.
Tell us who the owners are. Because if we were saying, as a player, we’re saying something about the owners, that owner would find out who the fk was saying that st.
And we would be in a situation where we could be f***ed up.”
Even with that anger, Anthony said he wasn’t dismissing Torre’s work entirely.
“You got what you got. And I don’t want you to stop being a journalist.
I don’t want you to, because you do great journalism. And I respect you as a journalist.
The Clippers s**t, cool. Bong, bong, bong.
You won an award with it. You won a Peabody with that.
Now, you’re coming over here to this side of it. This ain’t got nothing to do with nothing.”
He finished by pointing to what he sees as the real source of the irritation.
“These owners out here are very… I want to make sure I use the right terminology. Right. They are very perturbed, okay, with Michael Rubin.”
The controversy started after reports said LeBron had access to a Fanatics-branded corporate helicopter for travel between New York and Philadelphia. LeBron signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the 76ers this offseason, a steep drop from his previous salary.
That setup has led to questions about whether any outside perks could amount to salary cap circumvention, though nothing improper has been established. Torre previously said NBA owners had contacted him about the helicopter arrangement, and he also reported that league sources were wondering whether Fanatics CEO and former Sixers minority owner Michael Rubin helped convince LeBron to sign with the Sixers during Fanatics Fest.
Anthony, a longtime friend of LeBron’s, said the questions should stop. He and LeBron entered the league in 2003 and later played together with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Torre has said he is not accusing LeBron or Philadelphia of circumventing the salary cap. His reporting has raised questions about the arrangement, but it has not established that any improper compensation occurred.
For Anthony, the issue is simple: if owners are going to raise concerns, they should do it publicly instead of hiding behind anonymous sourcing.
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