A 45-minute helicopter trip from the 76ers' Camden practice site to LeBron James's New York home drew pleas online for him to drive instead, turning a routine commute into a flashpoint.
Kobe Bryant's Jan. 26, 2020 helicopter crash — which killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others — is driving that reaction, especially because James is now 41, the age Bryant was when he died.
The overlap runs deeper: Bryant's last tweet congratulated James after he passed him for third on the NBA scoring list in Philadelphia, Bryant's hometown, the night before the crash.
James, who signed a two-year, $8 million deal with Philadelphia in July, does not face unusual statistical danger — the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team puts the fatality rate at 0.69 per 100,000 flight hours.
The episode underscores how fans project their own aging and loss onto James, whose long career has made concern over his commute feel less like travel anxiety than fear of another irreplaceable ending.