RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesCredit: Kirby Lee - Imagn Images; The Dan Le Batard Show
The Philadelphia 76ers were a shocking landing spot for the legendary LeBron James, given his lack of history with the team or its players.
The surprise of the move, coupled with its late-Friday arrival, has led to confusion across sports media . But perhaps the most audacious perspective came from Miami-based host Dan Le Batard, who immediately suggested there may have been foul play on the part of Michael Rubin, the former Philadelphia 76ers minority owner turned Fanatics CEO.
Couched in supposed reporting from inside the Miami Heat, Le Batard spun a strange web of conspiracies in the opening minutes of his show’s live reaction to James’ move on Friday , stating that James taking a pay cut combined with his participation in Fanatics Fest and the merchandising windfall likely coming Fanatics’ way with James changing teams has led to “questions being asked” inside the Heat organization.
“I’m going to tell you as well that I am just now beginning to get the texts of, the Heat are curious how it is the Sixers did this. The texts I’m getting are, ‘Time for Pablo to see if he can find out,'” Le Batard said, referencing his company’s investigative show, Pablo Torre Finds Out .
“Because $3.9 million is about half, I think, of what the Heat were offering. So to make this choice when the stuff around Fanatics, the stuff around Michael Rubin, Michael Rubin leaving the Sixers and his relationship with Joel Embiid because he didn’t love the fact that there were, sort of, limits on how it is he can interact with players when he was a minority owner. So he started an entity where he’s trying to build a giant empire.
“Nobody helps Fanatics more in the building of merch-selling than someone like LeBron James. So already some questions being asked about how this happened, just because I think a whole lot of people are surprised it happened at all, even though Philadelphia was always in the conversation. They were never considered by anybody but the group that chose them as the favorite. Nobody thought that he would trust Joel Embiid’s health as the punctuation on his career.”
The Rubin timeline coming from Le Batard does not exactly line up. The wealth Rubin used to acquire a stake in his hometown Sixers came from nearly two decades in the sports equipment and merchandise business. While plenty of team and league partnerships are worthy of scrutiny, particularly after Torre’s reporting on the Los Angeles Clippers, it is inaccurate to claim that Rubin entered that business after divesting from the Sixers.
As for James taking a pay cut, he said from the start of the offseason that money would not guide his decision. If James had signed with Cleveland, as was widely projected , he would have likely done so for a minimum salary — even less than he took to sign with Philadelphia.
Despite lead producer Mike Ryan’s efforts to dispel the conspiracy, Le Batard returned to it later in the show, drawing attention toward James’ participation in Fanatics Fest in New York City last weekend.
“I’m just telling you what’s coming up in my texts here, and the idea that this changed after and around Fanatics Fest,” he said, “and we know what a player Fanatics just generally is around all celebrity, I am fascinated by the fact that the Philadelphia 76ers just got the bargain of all free-agent bargains in bringing in the LeBron James experience and the last of his career to their ticket-sales department.
“Whatever the Sixers have been as a laughingstock through the trusting of the process, they just made themselves the epicenter of the NBA by getting the oldest player in the league for one of the biggest bargains you have ever seen.”
Rubin sold his stake in the 76ers in 2022. And Fanatics is an NBA partner on merchandise, collectibles, and trading cards at the league level. Aside from the fact that the Sixers are perhaps the most popular team of any he was considering, or maybe that James’ diehard fans would already have had Cleveland and Miami merch, there is no reason to believe Fanatics would have generated significantly more revenue from a move to Philadelphia compared with any other team.
Without any indication that Rubin had any role in the move or stands to gain financially from it in any serious way, Le Batard is going out on quite a limb to parrot fairly serious accusations from a whiny front office that lost out on a superstar signing.
The post Dan Le Batard insinuates foul play from Michael Rubin in LeBron James joining 76ers: ‘Questions being asked’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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