Basketball

Wall, the No 1 NBA draft pick in 2010, is best known for his spectacular point guard play with the Washington Wizards.

Five-time All-Star and former top overall draft pick John Wall announced his retirement from the NBA on Tuesday.

Wall, who will turn 35 on September 6, last played in the league with the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2022-23 season. Knee injuries have limited him to just 147 games since the start of the 2017-18 season.

“Every jersey I’ve worn meant more than wins and stats,” Wall said in a video posted on social media. “It represented something bigger.”

Wall began the first of his nine seasons with Washington after being selected by the Wizards with the top overall pick of the 2010 NBA draft out of Kentucky. He averaged 19.0 points, 9.2 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 573 career games (561 starts) with Washington.

“One of our franchise all-time greats. The definition of an era. A lasting legacy. A forever Wizard. Congratulations on your retirement,” the team wrote on social media.

Wall, who did not play in 2019-20, was involved in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Rockets on December 2, 2020, that saw Russell Westbrook sent to Washington. The Wizards sent Wall and a first-round pick in the 2023 NBA draft to the Rockets for Westbrook and a lottery-protected first-round pick in the same 2023 draft.

Wall played one season in Houston (2020-21), sat out the 2021-22 season with an injury and came back to compete in 34 games with the Clippers in 2022-23.

The first World Humanoid Robot Games have concluded in Beijing with more than 500 androids alternating between jerky tumbles and glimpses of real power as they took part in events ranging from the 100m (109-yard) hurdles to kung fu.

Two hundred eighty robotics teams from 16 countries competed at the Chinese capital’s National Speed Skating Oval, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Events included traditional sports such as athletics and basketball as well as practical tasks such as medicine categorisation and cleaning.

“I believe in the next 10 years or so, robots will be basically at the same level as humans,” 18-year-old spectator Chen Ruiyuan said.

Human athletes might not be quaking in their boots just yet.

At one of the first events on Friday, five-a-side football, 10 robots the size of seven-year-olds shuffled around the pitch, often getting stuck in a scrum or falling over en masse.

However, in a 1,500m (nearly 1-mile) race, domestic champion Unitree’s humanoid stomped along the track at an impressive clip, easily outpacing its rivals.

The fastest robot finished in six minutes, 29.37 seconds, a far cry from the human men’s world record of 3:26.00.

One mechanical racer barrelled straight into a human operator. The robot remained standing while the human was knocked flat although did not appear to be injured.

Robot competitions have been held for decades, but the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games is the first to focus specifically on robots that resemble human bodies, organisers said.

The Chinese government has poured support into robotics, hoping to lead the industry.

Beijing has put humanoids at the “centre of their national strategy”, the International Federation of Robotics wrote in a paper released on Thursday.

“The government wants to showcase its competence and global competitiveness in this field of technology,” it added.

In March, China announced plans for a one-trillion-yuan ($139bn) fund to support technology start-ups, including those in robotics and artificial intelligence.

The country is already the world’s largest market for industrial robots, official statistics showed, and in April, Beijing held what organisers called the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon.

The WNBA is still struggling with a string of sex toy disturbances.

In the past week and a half, sex toys have been thrown on court during games in Atlanta on July 29, Chicago on August 1, Los Angeles on August 5 and Chicago again on Thursday night, with the most recent object hitting the court in the closing seconds of the Atlanta Dream’s victory over the Sky.

The sex toy that landed on the court in Los Angeles nearly hit Fever guard Sophie Cunningham during Indiana’s game against the Sparks. Sex toys were also thrown at games in New York and Phoenix last Tuesday, but didn’t reach the court. Police say another toy was thrown at a game in Atlanta on August 1, although it is unclear if that one reached the court.

The distractions have created unexpected challenges for the league, the teams and the players, but also for arena security. Here’s what to know.

A man was arrested Saturday in College Park, Georgia, after he was accused of throwing a sex toy onto the court during the Atlanta Dream’s July 29 matchup with the Golden State Valkyries, according to a police report. The report said he threw another sex toy during the Dream’s August 1 game against the Phoenix Mercury, but that instance did not seem to result in a delay of play.

He is charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, public indecency and indecent exposure. All four charges are misdemeanours in the state of Georgia, meaning that if he is convicted, the punishment for each can be a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to 12 months. A misdemeanour for public indecency and indecent exposure may also require registration on the state’s sex offender list.

The report said the man told police, “This was supposed to be a joke and the joke [was] supposed to go viral.”`

Another man in Phoenix was arrested after police say he threw a sex toy in the crowd at a Mercury game on Tuesday. Police say the 18-year-old pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket and threw it towards seats in front of him, striking a spectator in the back.

The man later told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and that he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was later tackled by a volunteer at the arena who had witnessed the incident and began following him as the man tried to leave the arena.

Police say the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.

The New York Liberty told The Associated Press on Thursday night that there is an ongoing investigation into the throwing in New York, and the team is cooperating with law enforcement.

The types of sex toys being thrown onto the court generally do not include metal elements, meaning that arena metal detectors are not able to sense them. When carried on a spectator’s body, they become even more difficult to detect.

ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.

— Isabelle Harrison (@OMG_itsizzyb) August 2, 2025

Arena security teams face challenges in catching these items, according to Ty Richmond, the president of the event services division at Allied Universal Security, a company that provides security services to certain NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB and MLS arenas across the country.

“Not all stadiums are using a screening process that’s consistent and can detect (the sex toys) because of what it would require — pat down searches, opening the bags, prohibiting bags,” he said. “The conflict of expediency, of getting fans into the arena and into the venue, which is an important issue, and security and safety.”

The limits of arena security make legal action one of the strongest deterrents for this kind of behaviour, Richmond said.

“The decision to prosecute and show examples of how people are being handled is very important,” he said. “Without a doubt, I think it will make a difference. The application of it is important, and publicising that is important.”

There have not been any arrests made yet in Los Angeles and Chicago. In a statement to The AP, the Sparks said they are “working with arena personnel to identify the individual responsible and ensure appropriate action is taken”.

The WNBA has said that any spectators throwing objects onto the court will face a minimum one-year ban and prosecution from law enforcement.

As the disturbances pile up, those on the court have become increasingly frustrated.

“Everyone is trying to make sure the W is not a joke and it’s taken seriously, and then that happens,” Cunningham said on her podcast after nearly being hit by one of the sex toys on Tuesday. “I’m like, ‘How are we ever going to get taken seriously?’”

No other professional sports leagues have faced sex toy disturbances like this. It has started a conversation online about the perpetrators’ choices to throw them during games in a women’s league and a league with a high-profile amount of lesbian and queer players.

“This has been going on for centuries, the sexualization of women. This is the latest version of that. It’s not funny. It should not be the butt of jokes,” said Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve on Thursday. “The sexualisation of women is what’s used to hold women down, and this is no different.”

Despite the criminal behaviour leading to arrests, at least one crypto-based predictions market is offering trades essentially allowing users to wager on whether sex toys will be thrown at future WNBA games.

Players have also been sounding off on social media, echoing concerns about arena security protocols.

Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison posted on X last week, saying, “ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. Never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.”

As Nigerian women dominate sport on the continent, they’re facing off not just against top talent abroad but a domestic atmosphere of mismanagement and pay disparities – and even the risk of repression for speaking out.

Nigeria is fresh off a win at the finals of Women’s AfroBasket, their fifth-consecutive championship at the continent’s top hardwood basketball tournament, while last month the Super Falcons clinched their 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) football title.

The football team’s successes, however, have come despite pay disparities compared with their male counterparts – when they are paid at all.

The women receive a training camp allowance, but the bulk of their pay comes from per-match bonuses, which vary depending on the team’s results.

Both the women’s basketball and football teams have been plagued by late or unpaid match bonuses for years, despite their records as arguably the best teams on the continent.

But when the Super Falcons landed in Abuja after their 3-2 WAFCON victory over hosts Morocco last month, none of the players answered questions shouted by an AFP reporter in the press scrum about whether they would ask the president, who was welcoming them at his villa, about being paid the same as the men’s team.

Nigerian journalists on the scene said the question was useless: it was far too politically charged.

“If you speak up against what’s going on, you completely lose the possibility of getting what you’re entitled to, you could actually be blacklisted,” Solace Chukwu, senior editor at Afrik-Foot Nigeria, later told the AFP.

Not that there are no clashes: In 2021, basketballers called out the authorities when they topped Africa, protesting against unpaid match bonuses.

The Nigeria Basketball Federation at the time denied any wrongdoing, blaming the issue on clerical errors.

Like the basketball team, the women’s football team has found remarkable success, stemming in part from the country’s population of more than 200 million, the largest on the continent, complemented by a widespread diaspora.

They also benefitted from early investments in women’s football at a time when other African countries focused on men’s teams, Chukwu said, helping the Super Falcons win the first seven editions of the WAFCON, from 1991 to 2006.

Yet they only played a handful of test matches before they landed in Morocco for this year’s competition, cobbled together at the last second.

The Super Falcons have not been completely silent in the face of mismanagement and disinterest from authorities.

But rocking the boat too much appears to come with a cost.

“Players who lead or dare to protest… always risk not being invited or sidelined outrightly,” said Harrison Jalla, a players’ union official.

After Super Falcons captain Desire Oparanozie – now a commentator – led protests over unpaid wages at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, she was stripped of her captaincy and not called up for the 2022 tournament.

Former men’s coach Sunday Oliseh – who himself was let go from the national squad amid protests over backpay in the early 2000s – called the situation a case of “criminal” retaliation.

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) at the time denied that it dropped Oparanozie over the protests.

The NFF and the Super Falcons did not respond to an AFP request for comment on the allegations that players are afraid to speak out.

Players still have hopes for women’s sports to expand.

“I think the sky is the limit,” Nigerian point guard Promise Amukamara told AFP in Abuja, fresh off her AfroBasket win.

“Obviously, more facilities should be built around Nigeria. I feel like, maybe one year, we should host the AfroBasket.”

Aisha Falode, an NFF official, meanwhile, called on the government to “invest in the facilities, invest in the leagues and the players, because the women’s game can no longer be taken lightly”.

Despite the challenges, women’s sport is still finding a foothold among younger fans.

Justina Oche, 16, a player at a football academy in Abuja, told the AFP that the exploits of the team inspired her to pursue a career in the sport.

“They say what a man can do, a woman can do even better,” said the youngster, whose role model is six-time African Footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala.

“The Super Falcons have again proved this.”

Former NBA All-Star is among six indicted on US federal charges for conducting illegal gambling at his California mansion.

Former NBA All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas and five other defendants have been arrested on a federal indictment alleging they operated an illegal gambling business running high-stakes poker games at Arenas’s mansion in Encino, California.

Arenas, 43, is charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, one count of operating an illegal gambling business and one count of making false statements to federal investigators.

He was scheduled to make his initial appearance and be arraigned on Wednesday afternoon in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. If convicted, he would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for each count.

Those arrested on Wednesday included 49-year-old Yevgeni Gershman, described as a suspected organised crime figure from Israel, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California.

Arenas and the other defendants operated an illegal gambling business from September 2021 to July 2022, according to the indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday.

Arenas rented out the Encino mansion for the co-conspirators to host the illegal “Pot Limit Omaha” poker games, among other illegal games, with a fee charged from each pot either as a percentage or a fixed amount per hand.

Gershman hired women who were paid in tips and served drinks, provided massages and offered companionship to the poker players, with the women charged a percentage of their earnings by the business operators, per the indictment. Chefs, valets and armed security guards were also hired to staff the games.

Arenas was a three-time All-Star, and All-NBA second-team selection in 2006-07 and third team in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

He averaged 20.7 points, 5.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 552 regular-season games (455 starts) for the Golden State Warriors (2001-03), Washington Wizards (2003-10), Orlando Magic (2010-11) and Memphis Grizzlies (2012).

His NBA career was overshadowed by an incident in December 2009 in which he and Washington teammate Javaris Crittenton brought guns into the locker room two days after having a dispute on a flight during a card game.

Arenas pleaded guilty to felony gun possession and was suspended for the final 50 games of the 2009-2010 NBA season.

The Warriors selected Arenas in the second round (31st overall) of the 2001 NBA Draft out of Arizona.

The Los Angeles Lakers All-Star guard discussed his summer body transformation with Men’s Health before a new NBA season.

After plenty of attention was brought to Luka Doncic’s fitness level following his shocking February trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, the five-time All-Star has been putting together another surprise this offseason.

After reports of an improved physique surfaced earlier this summer, a profile in Men’s Health magazine confirmed the extent to which Doncic has gone to develop a slimmed-down look as he prepares for his first full season in Los Angeles.

Doncic, 26, has generally been listed at 6-foot-6-inch (1.98 metres) and 230 pounds (104kg), although opinions on the weight have varied. It did not prohibit him from scoring 28.2 points with 8.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists last season.

But reports indicated this past winter that the Dallas Mavericks had become exasperated with Doncic’s lack of fitness, which might have contributed to a calf injury that the star guard had been rehabbing for a month before the trade that shocked the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Ankle, calf, knee, and back injuries have slowed Doncic at certain times in his career, although he still managed to play at least 61 games in a season until he was reduced to 50 last year, combining the Mavericks and Lakers’ games.

Now, Doncic is visibly slimmer after an improved diet combined with a fitness programme. He has been avoiding gluten and keeping sugar to a minimum, while loading up on protein to help him get through multiple workouts a day that include lifting weights, along with on-court drills.

“Obviously, be the best that I can be, take care of myself,” Doncic told Men’s Health. “This year, with my team, I think we did a huge step. But this is just the start, you know. I need to keep going. Can’t stop.”

While fellow NBA superstar LeBron James exercised a contract option to return to the Lakers in 2025-26, the team also added centre Deandre Ayton, guard Marcus Smart and forward Jake LaRavia.

The profile did not mention Doncic’s current weight, but photographs showed off his slim look with greater muscle definition in his arms. His workouts kept him away from basketball at first, then had him return to the court in June. He will play for Slovenia in EuroBasket in August.

“So every summer, I try my best to work on different things,” he said. “Obviously, I’m very competitive. This summer was just a little bit different, you know. It kind of motivated me to be even better.”

World Class Athletes Train Hard to Slow Down—and Stop. Here’s How Luka Doncic Hones Deceleration. https://t.co/sbolxNSoss

— Men’s Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) July 29, 2025

Basketball usually took a backseat in early conversations between Eric Musselman and prized recruit Alijah Arenas.

On one side was a teenage phenom navigating an early jump to college. On another was a USC men’s basketball coach seemingly more interested in other aspects of Arenas’ life, including his mood, when he woke up and how he made sense of the people and the world around him.

So when USC’s coach stood in front of the Galen Center’s vibrant new scoreboard Friday morning — two days after it was announced that Arenas would miss six to eight months with a knee injury — Musselman found himself stammering, stitching together the words to encapsulate what the freshman meant to him.

“I probably feel closer to him than anybody that I’ve coached in a two-month span since he’s been on campus,” Musselman said.

The bond has already weathered more than most would in four years.

First came the reclassification — Arenas skipped his senior year of high school to join USC. Then came the rush course into collegiate basketball as he prepared spring practice. Then, on April 25, Arenas was in a serious car crash that led to him being placed into a coma.

After recovering from his injuries, Arenas was barely two weeks back from being medically cleared to practice when he sustained a slight meniscus tear and bone bruise.

But even in those 14 days — and just one full practice with Musselman present — Arenas proved enough to be the centerpiece of his coach’s vision for USC.

“We built the roster around some of the stuff that he could do, and knowing that he could play the one and the two, and when he played the one, would have great length,” Musselman said. “And I told people from the beginning of the recruiting process what a great passer he was.”

At 6 feet 7, Arenas averaged 30.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game at Chatsworth High before landing 13th in ESPN’s Class of 2025.

In Arenas’ absence, Musselman said he has weighed adding a 14th player to the roster, but would do so only if it “could help us.” The bigger hurdle, the coach added, would be revenue-sharing limits.

Arenas will still be traveling, learning and rehabbing alongside USC. And he’ll continue to shadow Musselman in a role the coach never had to explain to him.

“To some people during the recruiting process, you call them and you can’t wait to get off the phone, and you’re just kind of calling them to try to develop a relationship,” Musselman said. “The reason that Alijah and I are in such a good spot is because he picked up the phone when I called him.

He added: “We already had a built-in trust before he got here.”

Etc.

Musselman said Friday that Terrance Williams II (wrist), whose injury he called “one of the weirdest injuries I’ve seen,” will return Aug. 25 when the Trojans report for practice on the first day of the academic year. … Musselman noted that Jordan Marsh has been the team’s “biggest surprise” of the summer, while Rodney Rice will take over as the Trojans’ primary ball handler.

The 40-year-old All-Star will report to Los Angeles Lakers’ training camp this preseason amid NBA trade rumours.

Despite an off season of rumours and speculation, LeBron James is expected to remain with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2025-26 basketball season, The Athletic has reported.

The Lakers and James have not engaged in talks about a trade or buyout, and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer is expected to report to camp with the Lakers this autumn, per the report published on Wednesday. There haven’t been any signs, either, that James wants out.

James picked up his $52.6m option last month to return for an eighth season with the Lakers.

He will be returning to a team this time around on which, for the first time in his career, he is the second option. Luka Doncic, acquired in a stunning trade from the Dallas Mavericks in February, is expected to be the centrepiece for Los Angeles in the upcoming season.

Apparently fuelling the trade or buyout rumours is a statement made by James’s longtime agent, Rich Paul, last month that included this line, “We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career.”

Trading James, given his salary, would be difficult since NBA trades must be for players with contracts of similar value due to the salary cap.

The Lakers, according to The Athletic, also are reluctant to take on a player earning in the $50m range if he has additional years on the contract. The Lakers will be free of James’s $52.6m player option once his contract expires at the end of the upcoming season.

James, 40, is entering his record-setting 23rd NBA season. He has played in 1,562 regular-season games and is 50 shy of breaking Hall of Fame member Robert Parish’s NBA record.

James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 70 games in 2024-25 to rank in the top 22 in each category. The Lakers forward also finished sixth in most valuable player (MVP) voting.

He is a 21-time All-Star, four-time league MVP and four-time NBA champion. He has scored a record 42,184 regular-season points, and 50,473 in the regular season and playoffs combined.

James entered the NBA as an 18-year-old after being selected number one in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He turns 41 in December.

Oklahoma City Thunder and centre Chet Holmgren agree to contract extension worth up to a quarter of a billion dollars.

Chet Holmgren and the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder agreed to a five-year rookie-maximum contract extension worth up to $250m, ESPN reported on Wednesday.

The contract is fully guaranteed and comes on the heels of Oklahoma City’s landmark contract with NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who agreed to a four-year, $285.4m super maximum contract extension through 2031 to become the league’s highest-paid player at more than $71m per season.

The 7-foot-1-inch (2.16m) Holmgren, 23, has been impactful when he’s on the court. Injuries limited him to 32 regular-season games after a hip injury last season. He also missed his rookie season with a foot injury.

With career averages of 16.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, Holmgren proved to be a critical piece for the team’s run to a title in 2025. He had eight double-double performances in 23 postseason games in 2025.

The second overall selection in the 2022 draft, Holmgren entered the NBA alongside Jalen Williams, the number 12 pick that year. Williams is also eligible for the rookie supermax extension. He’s entering the final season of a four-year rookie deal with a $6.6m base salary in 2025-26.

He’s also just the third player in history to make 150 three-pointers and 250 blocks through the first two NBA seasons.

As expected, the Dallas Mavericks select Cooper Flagg with top pick while Dylan Harper joins Victor Wembanyama at San Antonio Spurs.

Cooper Flagg anticipated the moment for many months.

Still, when the Duke product heard his name called Wednesday at No 1 overall in the NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, he experienced a flurry of emotions.

“I’m feeling amazing,” Flagg said as he stood with his family. “It’s a dream come true, to be honest. I wouldn’t want to share it with anybody else.”

The Mavericks’ announcement ended a months-long buildup for the 18-year-old Maine native, who had long been projected as the top pick. The only question was which team would get a chance to take him, and Dallas earned that opportunity when it won the NBA Draft lottery last month despite 1.8 percent odds.

Flagg figures to quickly provide a new face of the franchise for the Mavericks, who drew ire from their fan base after trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last season.

The 6-foot-8-inch (2.03m), 221-pound (100kg) Flagg helped guide Duke to an NCAA Final Four appearance after averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks as a freshman. He won the Wooden Award as the nation’s best player, along with taking home other honours including Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year and an ACC All-Defensive Team nod.

The San Antonio Spurs followed with the No 2 pick, which they used to select Rutgers guard Dylan Harper. The son of longtime NBA player Ron Harper will join a talented roster that includes prized big man Victor Wembanyama and reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.

Harper said he could not wait to get to San Antonio to prepare for the season.

“I’m feeling everything – all the emotions mixed in one bucket,” Harper said. “I think when you play with a bunch of great players, it brings the best out of you. They’ve got a great young core over there. I’m just ready to get in there and make an impact any way I can with those guys.”

At No 3, the Philadelphia 76ers selected guard VJ Edgecombe out of Baylor. He was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year after averaging 15 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Bears.

The Charlotte Hornets selected Duke guard Kon Knueppel next, which marked the second Blue Devils freshman to be selected in the top four picks. Now, Knueppel will stay in North Carolina to play in the NBA.

“It was a big spotlight at Duke,” he said. “(We) freshmen didn’t shy away from that, and it prepared us for the next level. Hopefully, that will carry over.”

The Utah Jazz selected Ace Bailey, who played with Harper at Rutgers, to round out the top five picks.

Flagg’s Duke teammate, centre Khaman Maluach, heard his name called at No 10 overall. The pick belonged to the Houston Rockets, who then sent the draft rights to Maluach to the Phoenix Suns as part of a deal to be finalised for Kevin Durant.

Maluach was born in South Sudan and did not discover basketball until he was an adolescent.

“I’m here representing the whole continent,” Maluach said. “Leaving Africa, I had the whole continent on my back. (I want to be) giving hope to young kids, inspiring young kids and the next generation of African basketball.”

The Mavericks had the No 1 overall pick for the second time in franchise history. They also had the top selection in 1981, when they drafted Mark Aguirre out of DePaul.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have capped an extraordinary season by defeating the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to win the franchise’s first title since relocating from Seattle in 2008.

The league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, led the scoring in front of a raucous home crowd at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, with 29 points and 12 assists in the deciding game on Sunday.

He was also crowned the best player of the Finals, marking the first time since Shaquille O’Neal in 2002 that the same player had won the scoring title, regular season and Finals MVP honours.

The Pacers suffered a huge blow early on when they lost their star point guard,  Tyrese Haliburton, midway through the first quarter with an Achilles injury and saw their title hopes dashed by a stifling Oklahoma City defence in the second half.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “So many hours, so many moments, so many emotions, so many nights of disbelief, so many nights of belief.

“This group works hard. This group put in the hours, and we deserve this,” he added.

The championship capped an extraordinary run for the Thunder, who ended the regular season with a 68-14 record, good for the fifth-most wins in a single NBA season.

The Finals between two small-market teams were light on star power but delivered on thrills, as the surprise Eastern Conference champions Pacers pushed the best team in the league to the winner-take-all finale.

The Pacers got off on the right track as Haliburton drained his third three-pointer five minutes into the game, but the night took a terrible turn for Indiana when he slipped and fell two minutes later.

The two-time All Star was in tears as his team’s medical staff rushed to his side, and a hush fell over the building packed with Oklahoma City fans.

Haliburton was helped to the locker room but did not return, and while there was no official update from the team, a TV broadcast reported he had suffered an Achilles injury.

The resilient Pacers kept the game tight through a physical second quarter, putting up a terrific defensive effort to end the half up by one.

However, the Thunder soon took control with Gilgeous-Alexander, who went 0-5 behind the arc in the first half, lighting the fuse with a 25-foot three-point jump shot four minutes into the third quarter.

The Pacers were masters of the late comeback in the postseason, but without Haliburton, they were unable to claw back the deficit, with the Thunder opening the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run.

Youthful champions’ struggle

The Thunder’s youth was evident in their postgame celebration.

“No one knew how to open them,” Thunder centre Isaiah Hartenstein said of the post-game celebratory champagne bottles.

They learned soon enough, thanks to 31-year-old Alex Caruso, both the oldest player on the roster and the only player on the team who had previously won an NBA title.

“AC [Caruso] did a great job of giving us a tutorial,” Hartenstein said.

The Thunder youth came through with inconsistency at times.

“The whole run, I’ve tried to help the guys just be who we are, and that’s all we needed is to be who we are,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

The Pacers remain without an NBA title.

It could’ve been worse for the Pacers if not for point guard TJ McConnell, who scored 12 points in the third, hitting six of Indiana’s eight field goals in the frame.

Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers for the game with 24 points off the bench. Pascal Siakam and McConnell added 16 each.

The Thunder became the first team to score 100 or more points in an NBA Finals Game 7 since 1988, when the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons 108-105.

Caruso, who played on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020 title team, said he hoped his postgame tutorial would pay off again down the road.

“We’ll get some rest, rest, try to do it again next year,” Caruso said. “We’ll be better [at it] next year.”

Phoenix Suns All-Star forward Kevin Durant will join his fifth NBA team after being traded to the Houston Rockets.

The Houston Rockets are acquiring 15-time All-Star forward Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for guard Jalen Green and forward Dillon Brooks as well as the number 10 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and five second-round picks, ESPN reported on Sunday.

The trade can be completed when the new league year for the US National Basketball Association (NBA) begins on July 6. At that point, Durant will be eligible to sign a two-year extension worth up to $122m.

Durant has one season left on his current deal and is set to earn $54.7m in 2025-26.

Durant will join a Rockets team that finished the regular season as the second seed in the Western Conference. The star forward will join All-Star Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Fred VanVleet, among others, in Houston.

Durant, who turns 37 in September, played in 62 games with the Suns in 2024-25. He averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks, not far off of his career averages. He also shot 43.0 percent from three-point range.

Selected to the All-NBA first team six times, Durant has appeared in 1,123 games with the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder (2007-16), Golden State Warriors (2016-19), Brooklyn Nets (2020-23) and Suns. He has career averages of 27.2 points, 7.0 rebounds. 4.4 assists and 1.1 blocks, shooting 39 percent from long distance.

Green, 23, averaged 21.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists while starting in all 82 games this season. He now ventures to Phoenix to join All-Star Devin Booker in a potent backcourt.

He has contributed 20.1 points, 4.3 boards and 3.4 assists in 307 games since being selected by the Rockets with the second overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft.

Brooks, 29, averaged 14.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 75 games this season.

He has contributed 14.2 points, 3.2 boards and 2.0 assists in 492 games with the Memphis Grizzlies (2017-23) and Rockets. He was selected by Houston in the second round of the 2017 NBA Draft.

The Senegalese women’s basketball team has scrapped plans to train in the U.S. for the upcoming AfroBasket tournament in the Ivory Coast next month after several players and team officials had their visas denied, Senegal’s prime minister said.

Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said on Facebook Thursday that the team would train in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting.”

The West African nation’s federation said in a statement that the visa applications of five players and seven officials weren’t approved.

“Informed of the refusal of issuing visas to several members of the Senegal women’s national basketball team, I have instructed the Ministry of Sports to simply cancel the 10-day preparatory training initially planned in the United States of America,” Sonko said.

The visa denials come amid a push by the Trump administration to make countries improve vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States. Senegal wasn’t on that list of countries and it was not immediately clear why the visas were denied.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that it could not comment on individual cases because visa records are confidential under U.S. law.

The travel ban includes exemptions for the World Cup, the Olympics and any “other major sporting event,” though it’s unclear what constitutes a major event.

The team is coached by Otis Hughley Jr., who previously led the Nigerian women’s basketball team. He was the men’s coach at Alabama A&M University before resigning in March.

Senegal, which was going to train in the U.S. from Sunday through July 3, has finished first or second in four of the last five AfroBasket championships over the last decade and has won 11 titles overall. The tournament determines Africa’s champion, which earns entry into the FIBA World Cup next year in Germany.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.

The Indiana Pacers, rallying around injured star Tyrese Haliburton, crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-91 to force a deciding Game 7 in the NBA Finals.

Haliburton, cleared to play with a right calf injury only a couple of hours before tipoff, scored 14 points with five assists and two steals in a solid contribution to a comprehensive team effort.

“We just wanted to protect home court,” Haliburton said on Thursday. “We didn’t want to see these guys celebrate a championship on our home floor.

“Backs against the wall, we just responded,” he added. “So many different guys chipped in, total team effort. I’m really proud of this group.”

Obi Toppin led the Pacers scoring with 20 points off the bench as Indiana’s reserves out-scored Oklahoma City’s bench 48-37.

Andrew Nembhard added 17 points and Pascal Siakam had 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Pacers, who had lost the last two games to stand on the brink of elimination, leveled the best-of-seven championship series at three games apiece.

Haliburton, who said he’d do everything he could to play after limping through most of Game 5, showed virtually no sign of his injury as the Pacers grabbed the game by the throat in the second quarter and never let go.

Indiana led by 22 points at halftime and by as many as 31 early in the fourth quarter.

“Well, we were going home if we didn’t come out and give everything we have and leave it all out on the floor,” said T.J. McConnell, who had 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists off the bench for Indiana.

“Obviously very happy, very proud, but we’ve got to flush it because we have another one on Sunday.”

Thunder searching for answers ahead of Game 7

NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 21 points but had eight of the Thunder’s 21 turnovers.

Gilgeous-Alexander missed his lone three-point attempt while Jalen Williams – coming off a 40-point performance in game five – missed all four of his three-point attempts on the way to 16 points.

The Thunder, winners of a league-best 68 regular-season games – pulled their starters after falling behind by 30 going into the fourth quarter.

They’ll be searching for answers as the series heads back to Oklahoma City for the championship finale on Sunday – the first Game 7 in the NBA finals since 2016.

“The way I see it, we sucked tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We can learn the lessons and we have one game for everything, for everything we’ve worked for.”

The Thunder are seeking their first title since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, having won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Pacers, meanwhile, are in search of a first NBA title. They won American Basketball Association (ABA) titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973 before joining the NBA as part of the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.

Pacers ride wave of momentum

“You know, we’ve got one game,” Haliburton said. “All cards on the table. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

For a few minutes, it looked like the Thunder might roll to the title.

The Pacers missed their first eight shots and fell into a quick eight-point hole. But they settled in to connect on six straight attempts and took the lead on a three-pointer from Nembhard midway through the first quarter.

Indiana piled on the pressure with a pair of three-pointers and a trey from Haliburton – his first basket of the night – pushing their lead to as many as nine points.

Up by three at the end of the first, the Pacers exploded in the second quarter, stepping up the aggression on both ends of the floor on the way to a 64-42 halftime lead.

With less than a minute to go in the first half Haliburton came up with a steal then found Siakam with a no-look pass for an emphatic dunk.

Siakam followed up with a turnaround jump shot at the halftime buzzer.

Toppin praised Haliburton as “a soldier,” but Haliburton said the victory was down to the team effort.

“It’s the Finals,” Haliburton said. “All of us got to give everything we have.”

Oklahoma have one hand on the trophy after a win 120-109 over Indiana, whose star player Haliburton struggled in Game 5.

Jalen Williams erupted for 40 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder held off the Indiana Pacers to score a 120-109 victory and move to within one win of clinching the NBA Finals.

An enthralling Game 5 battle in Oklahoma on Monday saw the Pacers climb out of an 18-point first-half hole to get within two points of the Thunder in the fourth quarter.

But just as Indiana threatened the latest in a series of trademark comebacks, the Thunder found an extra gear with Williams and NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander steering the team to a pivotal victory.

The win leaves the Thunder 3-2 up in the best-of-seven series, meaning they can seal the NBA crown with victory in Game 6 in Indianapolis on Thursday.

Williams finished with 40 points, six rebounds and four assists while Gilgeous-Alexander co-starred with 31 points and 10 assists, four blocks and two steals.

“My teammates instil a lot of confidence in me to go out and be me,” Williams said. “And [coach] Mark [Daigneault] has done a good job of telling me to just be myself.”

Williams said Oklahoma City’s experience in Game 1 – when they blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead to lose – had helped them close out victory.

“Tonight was the exact same game as game one, to be honest,” Williams said. “Learning through these finals is what makes this team good and we were able to do that.”

Pascal Siakam led the Indiana charge with 28 points but the Pacers were left sweating on the health of star point guard Tyrese Haliburton after the loss.

Haliburton, whose fitness has been under a cloud since game two of the series, left the game in the first quarter with a right calf problem before returning later in the contest.

The Pacers talisman finished with just four points from a bitterly disappointing outing – all of them coming from free throws – as the Thunder’s vaunted defence clamped down on the Pacers.

“He’s not 100 percent, it’s pretty clear,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game.

“We were concerned at half-time and he insisted on playing … but he’s not 100 percent. There’s a lot of guys in the series that aren’t.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s strong fourth quarter carries Oklahoma City Thunder to crucial road win over Indiana Pacers, levelling the best-of-seven finals series at 2-2.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter as the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied for a gritty 111-104 victory over the Indiana Pacers that levelled the NBA Finals at two games apiece.

Frustrated for much of the game by Indiana’s relentless defence, NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Gilgeous-Alexander found a way to fight through on Friday.

He followed a 3-pointer with a pull-up jumper to give the Thunder their first lead since the first half with 2:23 remaining in the contest.

They wouldn’t trail again. Gilgeous-Alexander, who didn’t get to the free-throw line in the first half, added six free throws in the final 44 seconds.

“It’s a dog fight,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after another intense, physical battle between the two teams. “Every time you step on the floor, on both ends of the floor they make you work.”

Jalen Williams scored 27 points, Chet Holmgren added 14 points and 15 rebounds and Alex Caruso chipped in with 20 points off the bench for the Thunder.

Pascal Siakam scored 20 points to lead Indiana, adding eight rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 18 points, Obi Toppin added 17 off the bench and the Pacers led by 10 late in the third quarter.

But Oklahoma City – who dropped back-to-back games just twice this season and haven’t lost consecutive games in the playoffs – clamped down defensively in the fourth, determined not to fall in a 3-1 hole.

“We knew it when we woke up this morning – 3-1 is a lot different than 2-2 going back home,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We played with desperation to the end of the game and that’s why we won.”

Gilgeous-Alexander said the Thunder must “maintain the same desperation” when they host Game 5 on Monday.

The Thunder are seeking their first title since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, having won it all in 1979 as the Seattle SuperSonics.

Close first half

The Pacers, chasing their first NBA title, struck first in another fast-paced opening quarter in front of their energised fans, making four of their first five shots and building a nine-point lead midway through the opening period.

Oklahoma hit back, putting together a 9-0 run to tie it, but the Pacers – with a strong defensive effort on Gilgeous-Alexander and four steals from Pascal Siakam – emerged from the first period with a 35-34 lead.

The back-and-forth battle continued in the second when Oklahoma City led by as many as six but could never pull away and Haliburton converted a three-point play – driving through traffic for a layup and making the free throw, his first of the series – to put Indiana up 60-57 at halftime.

By then, tensions had already ratcheted up. Toppin was assessed a flagrant foul for a check that sent Alex Caruso sprawling under the basket.

Thunder centre Isaiah Hartenstein confronted Toppin and both received technical fouls.

Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort was later assessed a flagrant foul for swiping an arm over Toppin’s head.

OKC rallies late

Toppin gave Indiana the first double-digit lead of the game with a dunk that put them up 86-76 late in the third.

But the Thunder dug deep, tying it up four times in the fourth quarter before Gilgeous-Alexander came through.

“You’re up seven at home you’ve got to dig in and find a way and we were not able to do it tonight,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “But give them credit. They kept attacking, kept attacking, and their defence was great down the stretch.”

Oklahoma City closed the game on a 12-1 scoring run, and Gilgeous-Alexander was the driving force.

“He’s unreal,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, although Caruso said nothing Gilgeous-Alexander does surprises him any more.

“I’ve seen him do it night after night,” Caruso said. “He doesn’t show a lot of emotion on the court, but he’s one of the most competitive guys in this league.”

Reserve guards bag 49 points at home as the Pacers top the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 in Game 3.

Bennedict Mathurin has put on a game-changing performance in game three of the NBA Finals to help the Indiana Pacers out-duel the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-107 and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.

Fuelled by a near triple-double from Tyrese Haliburton, who scored 22 points with nine rebounds and 11 assists, and a career playoff-high 27 points from reserve Mathurin, the Pacers showed a tremendous collective effort in Wednesday’s Game 3.

The Pacers bench outscored Oklahoma City’s reserves 49-18 and Indiana wore down NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose 24 points included just three in the fourth quarter.

“So many different guys chipped in,” Haliburton told broadcaster ABC. “Ben Mathurin was amazing off the bench tonight. He just stuck with it. We just had guys make plays after plays.”

Pascal Siakam scored 21 points for Indiana, and TJ McConnell added 10 points and five steals off the bench to help the Pacers improve to 10-0 since March 11 in games immediately after a defeat.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle lauded the contributions of Mathurin and McConnell.

“Those guys were tremendous,” Carlisle said. “TJ just brought a will, competitive will, to the game. Mathurin jumped in there and immediately was aggressive and got the ball in the basket.

“This is the kind of team that we are,” Carlisle added. “It’s not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we’ve got to do it, and we got to do it as a team.”

In 22:24 minutes on court through the second and fourth quarters, Mathurin was brutally efficient, making two of his three three-point attempts and seven of eight free – throws, adding in four rebounds an assist and a blocked shot for good measure.

“Just staying ready,” Mathurin said after the game. “Whenever my number is called, go into the game and do the right things and try to help my team win — that’s the whole mindset.”

Mathurin is playing in the playoffs for the first time, after watching the Pacers’ run to the Eastern Conference finals from the bench in the wake of season-ending surgery in March of 2024.

Carlisle said , the 22-year-old Canadian was looking ahead.

“He was with the team. He just wasn’t playing,” Carlisle recalled. “He took a lot of notes, a lot of mental notes, and he may have written some things down.

“He’s putting a lot of work to be ready for these moments, and tonight he was an absolute major factor.”

Mathurin said he was “fortunate to learn a lot” in what was an unfortunate situation last year but he admitted that it wasn’t easy.

Playing in the finals, in front of the intense fans in Indianapolis, “is a dream” but one he doesn’t want to get caught up in.

“I’m not trying to live in my dream,” he said. “I’m trying to live in the present and make sure the dream ends well, which means winning the next game and winning a championship.”

The Pacers will try to stretch their lead in the best-of-seven championship series when they host game four on Friday before the series heads back to Oklahoma City for game five on Monday.

🏆 GAME 3 FINAL SCORE 🏆

Tyrese Haliburton leads a late @Pacers charge at home to take a 2-1 series lead!

Mathurin: 27 PTS (playoff career high), 9-12 FGM
Siakam: 21 PTS, 6 REB, 4 AST
McConnell: 10 PTS, 5 AST, 5 STL
SGA: 24 PTS, 8 REB, 3 BLK

Game 4: Fri., 8:30pm/et, ABC pic.twitter.com/dABbdKOkRR

— NBA (@NBA) June 12, 2025

College sports leaders and athletes were in limbo for months while waiting for a House settlement to be approved. An agreement would create clarity, better supporting college conferences and their respective universities that had been blindly preparing for the next academic year — unsure which name, image and likeness (NIL) rules they’d be playing by.

Late Friday, structure and stability arrived as the House settlement became approved and official.

“The decision on Friday is a significant step forward toward building long-term stability for college sports while protecting the system from bad actors seeking to exploit confusion and uncertainty,” Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said during a news conference Monday morning that included commissioners of the Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and the Pac 12 conferences.

The House settlement has set the stage for revenue-sharing between universities and their athletes. Claudia Wilken, the presiding judge of California’s Northern District, accepted the final proposal Friday between the NCAA and the plaintiffs, current and former athletes seeking financial compensation for NIL-related backpay.

The NCAA will pay close to $2.8 billion to former athletes — as many as 389,700 athletes who played between June 15, 2016, to Sept. 15, 2024 — across a 10-year period and will also implement a 10-year revenue sharing model that will allow universities to pay current athletes up to $20.5 million per year.

According to the settlement, the total is “22% of the Power Five schools’ average athletic revenues each year” and the revenue-sharing cap will incrementally increase every year.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander learned a lesson to open the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.

“You can’t just throw the first punch,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the visiting Indiana Pacers on Sunday night. “You’ve got to throw all the punches all night.”

Gilgeous-Alexander and the rest of the Thunder threw plenty of haymakers, helping their side to a 123-107 victory to even the series 1-1 going into Wednesday’s Game 3 in Indianapolis.

That was a departure from Game 1 last Thursday, when the Thunder led by 15 in the fourth quarter before Indiana came back to win the game 111-110 on a basket in the final second.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way on Sunday for Oklahoma City, scoring 34 with eight assists, five rebounds and four steals, and went 11-of-12 on free throws.

There were plenty of areas of improvement from Game 1 for Thunder coach Mark Daigneault to point out after the victory.

Oklahoma City had more success turning Indiana’s turnovers into points at the other end, got better production from Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, had nearly double the assists after posting a season-low 13 in Game 1, and got an offensive spark off the bench from Alex Caruso and Aaron Wiggins.

Daigneault said none of those alone was the difference-maker, but all came together for a much better result for his team.

“I think we were just a little bit better in a lot of areas,” Daigneault said.

The biggest stretch of the game came in the second quarter, when the Thunder ripped off a 19-2 run fuelled by their defence and Gilgeous-Alexander’s finishes on the other end.

To that point, Oklahoma City’s defence had not forced many turnovers, and it had not taken advantage of the few it had caused.

But during that big run, Gilgeous-Alexander scored seven of Oklahoma City’s last nine points – all off Pacers’ turnovers.

Indiana quickly answered with a 10-0 run to make it 52-39, but never got closer than that 13-point deficit.

The Thunder outscored the Pacers 26-12 in the paint in the first half and, for the series, now lead 88-68 in that category.

“They’re the best team in the league at keeping the ball out of there,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s a tough task.”

In Game 1, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren combined to shoot just 8-of-28 from the floor, with Holmgren going just 2-for-9 with six points.

Holmgren looked much more settled early on in Game 2, hitting five consecutive shots after missing his first of the game.

While Williams was not overly efficient, scoring 19 points on 5-of-14 shooting, he did go 8-for-9 at the free throw line and added five assists.

Holmgren finished with 15 points, while Caruso added 20 and Wiggins 18 off the bench.

Tyrese Haliburton, the star of Game 1 after hitting the winning shot in the final second, led the Pacers with 17 points, though 12 of those came in the final quarter with the game fairly well in hand for Oklahoma City.

Over the first two games of the series, Haliburton is a combined 3-for-9 with nine points before half-time.

“I have to figure out how to be better at the beginning of games,” Haliburton said. “Kudos to them; they are a great defensive team.”

A big part of the Thunder’s defensive success against Haliburton has been thanks to Luguentz Dort. He has spent plenty of time guarding Haliburton but was on the opposite side of the floor for Haliburton’s Game 1 winner.

Dort finished with just three points, though Caruso gave him plenty of credit for the victory.

“He knows the role he needs to play for us to win the series and pick up that trophy at the end,” Caruso said.

Myles Turner added 16 for Indiana, while Pascal Siakam scored 15 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

New NBA league in Europe moves a step closer as talks with International Basketball Federation continue.

The NBA’s talks with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and other entities about the process of adding a new league in Europe are continuing, the game’s commissioner in the United States said.

Adam Silver noted it may take at least a couple more years to turn the ideas into reality, pinpointing the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 as a potential “launching pad” for another NBA competition.

He was speaking on Friday – an off day for the NBA Finals – at a league event to unveil a refurbished Boys & Girls Club in Oklahoma City and said it’s difficult to put a specific timeline on the Europe plans.

“I will say it’s measured in years, not months,” Silver said. “So, we’re at least a couple years away from launching.

“It would be an enormous undertaking. And while we want to move forward at a deliberate pace, we also want to make sure that we’re consulting with all the appropriate stakeholders, meaning the existing league, its teams, European players, media companies, marketing partners. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Silver and FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis announced in March that the league and the game’s governing body are finally taking long-awaited steps to form a new league, with an initial target of 16 teams.

The idea had been talked about for years, even decades on some levels. Silver revealed that since the NBA and FIBA went public with their idea to move forward, talks have gotten more constructive.

Silver said the NBA has been talking directly with the EuroLeague and with some member clubs about a partnership. It’s his preference that the NBA work with the existing league on some level, though it’s still too early to say exactly what that means.

“Either way, we continue to feel there are an enormous number of underserved basketball fans in Europe and that there’s a strong opportunity to have another league styled after the NBA,” Silver said.

About one in every six current NBA players hails from Europe, including Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) – who have combined for five of the last seven MVP awards – along with the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (France).

The NBA’s board of governors will talk more about next steps with the European plans in July, at their scheduled meeting in Las Vegas, Silver said. It’s possible that the European venture could be unveiled in some way – or possibly start – around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, given how much attention will be on international basketball at that time.

“That might be a good launching pad for an announcement around a new competition,” Silver said.

Some of the cities that are expected to have interest in being part of the new venture include London, Manchester, Rome and Munich. There will be others, of course.

“We haven’t had direct conversations yet,” Silver said. “But there have been several organisations that have come forward and said they would be interested and potential owners in operating in those major markets in Europe.”