On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, thousands of people filed into a dated convention center near O’Hare Airport to participate in the very American pastime of buying and selling sports trading cards.

Michael Rubin, the CEO of sportswear company Fanatics, was perusing a sports card store in the Los Angeles area Sunday when he came across a young superfan of Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker. She was filing through some of her Booker cards at Burbank Cards.

It was halftime of a 76ers game, and the owners’ lounge, in the bowels of Wells Fargo arena, was humming: Bartenders poured Opus One wine into plastic cups; Pat’s cheesesteaks lined the buffet table; and those lucky enough to have courtside seats for the game filed in to mingle.

With children cheering loudly, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman cocked back a football and pointed deep with his index finger from inside the NovaCare Complex’s indoor practice facility.

Love or loathe Fanatics Inc, it has evolved over the past year-plus into a major player in the sports industry beyond its core business of licensed college and pro sports apparel and merchandise.

Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin announced Thursday night that he's "passed Sixers ownership to" Campus Apartments CEO David Adelman.

Michael Rubin — the billionaire known for having the ears of star athletes, league offices and team owners — is selling his 10% stake in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, he told FOX Sports in an interview this week.

Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, a prominent minority owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, is selling his stake in the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment company that owns the Sixers and New Jersey Devils, he announced Wednesday.

Twenty-five percent of people who end up in jail every year did so without actually committing a crime, according to a stat cited by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin. Co-chaired by Rubin and rap star Meek Mill, the Reform Alliance is looking to do something about that statistic by changing the probation and petty technical violation laws across the country that send American citizens to prison.

Philadelphia 76ers partner Michael Rubin and rapper Meek Mill’s Reform Alliance treated 26 kids to a VIP experience at the team’s game on Wednesday — which included meeting TikTok stars Charlie and Dixie D’Amelio.

All eyes are on what Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin will do next. To anoint someone as supremely influential, especially the top rung in that rarified group, definitional clarity is a prerequisite. Webster’s says influence is “the power to change.”

Life isn’t all helicopters and parties for the king of sports merch — he’s got plans. Last month, after a three-day stretch in New York, Michael Rubin, was anxious to get back to Philadelphia to attend the home opener of the 76ers, the N.B.A. team of which he is an owner.