numbers

In any given year there are more than 500,000 American boys playing on almost 20,000 high school basketball teams, and fewer than 2% of them will make it to March Madness. Only 60 young men get drafted by an NBA team each summer, and in the most recent draft a third of those spots went to international players.

The numbers suggest the funnel from the Amateur Athletic Union into the NBA is one of the narrowest in all of sports. And we used to talk about the game with the reverence that exclusivity implies. The numbers are how we decide who is an All Star or a Hall of Famer. The numbers are how we determine — or debate — the greatest.

Gambling and cheating scandals are not the only threats to sports. Because of the economic gravity of fantasy sports leagues and legal gambling, the numbers most of us hear about these days have more to do with bettors making money than with players making shots.

Bill James — the godfather of baseball analytics, who coined the phrase sabermetric in the late 1970s — did not revolutionize the way the sports industry looked at data so we could have more prop bets. The first fantasy baseball league was not started in a New York restaurant back in 1980 to beat Las Vegas. The numbers were initially about the love of the game. But ever since sports media personalities decided to embrace faux debates for ratings — at the expense of pure fandom — disingenuous hot takes have set programming agendas, and the numbers that used to tell us something about players are cynically used to win vacuous arguments. And after states began to legalize sports betting, athletes went from being the focus to being props for parlays.

That’s not to say gambling wasn’t there before. In fact, while James and others were revolutionizing the way fans — and front offices — evaluated players, the Boston College point-shaving scandal was unfolding in the shadows. The current gambling scandal surrounding Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, who this week pleaded not guilty to charges alleging a role in a poker-fixing scheme, is not unprecedented. It’s just recent.

What’s new is how we talk about the numbers.

The whole idea of fantasy sports leagues was to enable fans to be their own general managers — not to make money, but because we cared about the game so much. At the risk of sounding more pious than I am: When every game, every half, every quarter and even every shot is attached to gambling odds, good old-fashioned storytelling gets choked out. Instead of learning about players and using numbers to describe them, we hear numbers the way private equity firms see a target’s holdings.

Nothing personal, just the data.

The whole point about loving sports used to be that it was personal. Our favorite players weren’t just about outcomes. They were 1 out of 500,000 guys who made it. Each had a backstory, and the way they got there was a big part of the connection we felt with them.

This is why the Billups saga hits the NBA community emotionally. Drafted in 1997, the Colorado native played for four teams in his first five years before becoming an All Star and a Finals MVP. His numbers aren’t what defined him — even though those numbers were good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. It was the resilience and character he demonstrated while trying to make it that fans admired. In his early-career struggles, we were reminded that making it in the NBA is hard and that everyone in the league beat the odds. It’s something we all know … but when broadcasters come out of commercial breaks showing the betting lines before the score, it’s easy to forget.

Thanksgiving is a big sports weekend and thus gambling weekend. Go ahead, eat irresponsibly … it’s the other vice that worries me.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

Australia is handing out record numbers of visas to young backpackers and Brits are snapping up the most, with nearly 80,000 young British nationals heading Down Under

Australia is giving out a record number of short-term visas to backpackers. And a huge number of them are young Brits heading Down Under for the adventure of a lifetime. There were 321,000 working holiday visas issued last year, up more than a third on the previous 12 months. Young people from the United Kingdom are leading the trend, making up a quarter of all backpacker visas That means nearly 80,000 Brits headed to Oz last year. They’re taking advantage of new rules that lifted the maximum age for British working holidaymakers and dumped requirement they spend 88 days each year doing regional work.

Matthew Heyes, founder of employment site Backpacker Job Board, said there had been a clear surge in the visa class this year, with global economic conditions a driving force.

He said: “Australia has just set a new record for visa grants, and the first quarter suggests we will go even higher. We’re seeing issues like the cost of living and stagnant wages motivate young people to make the trip.” New rules brought in by former PM Scott Morrison have led to the surge.

Former Immigration Department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said the working holidaymaker programme was going from strength to strength. He said: “Demand was inevitably going to be strong when we made it more generous, as we did. Australia is popular among Brits, and this is the first year we’ve seen the full effect of the agreement initially negotiated by Scott Morrison.

“It will have to peak at some stage, and it depends very much on our labour market – our labour market is certainly strong, and the UK’s is not as strong.”

Last year was the first time young Brits were no longer required to work and live in regional Australia to extend their stay. The number of visas issued to working holidaymakers from the UK soared from 47,000 in 2023-34 to a record 79,000 in 2024-25.

The raised eligible age for Brits, from 30 to 35, which came into effect the year before, resulted in 9100 visas being issued to that age group last financial year.

They are also staying longer overall: there were 28,600 second-year visas given to UK residents last financial year, up from 6300 the year before, and 8400 third-year visas, up from 680.

Visas issued to UK residents outstrip those from other leading nations, including France (42,000 visas issued in 2024-25), Ireland (24,100), Japan (16,000) and Germany (16,000). These visa holders still must work regionally to stay longer in Australia.

Before the 321,000 working holidaymaker visas issued in 2024-25, the highest number granted in one year was 258,000 in 2012-13.

The boom is being driven by a strong local jobs market and comparably tougher economic conditions for young people overseas. Many of Australia’s long-standing working holidaymaker agreements, including with the UK, are uncapped

Michael B. Jordan, 38, has given awards-worthy performances since he was a teenager. He now appears poised for his first Oscar nomination for playing twin bootleggers in frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”

15

Age when Jordan delivered an indelible performance as the softhearted, conflicted teen drug dealer Wallace on HBO’s “The Wire.”

2

Despite being considered one of the finest television shows of all time, “The Wire” received only two Emmy nominations — both for writing — and won neither.

20+

“Breakthrough” awards and other mentions poured in for Jordan’s nuanced portrayal of Oscar Grant, a real-life Bay Area man killed by transit police, in Coogler’s 2013 debut feature “Fruitvale Station.”

1

Although none of the top awards bodies recognized his “Fruitvale Station” performance, Jordan received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best male lead.

2016

The prestigious National Society of Film Critics named Jordan best actor for his portrayal of boxer Adonis Creed in “Creed,” Coogler’s expansion of the “Rocky” franchise.

0

Despite the NSFC signaling his arrival as a bona fide movie star, Jordan was left off the Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations lists.

2018

Jordan’s performance as complex antagonist Erik Killmonger in Coogler’s “Black Panther” drew widespread awards attention from critics groups, and the film’s cast won the SAG ensemble prize — Jordan’s highest acting honor to date.

4 (ish)

Although the data is shaky, it appears Jordan would be the fourth lead actor nominated for playing multiple characters in a movie if he gets the nod for “Sinners,” after Peter Sellers (“Dr. Strangelove”), Lee Marvin (“Cat Ballou”) and Nicolas Cage (“Adaptation”).

1

Only Marvin won, in 1966, for playing two gunmen — one far more broadly than the other.

Despite reports of tourist numbers being down in summer, the Balearics saw a year-on-year increase in passenger numbers, with Palma Airport in Majorca remaining one of Spain’s busiest airports

After two summers of anti-tourism protests, it appears Brits are undeterred from visiting the popular Balearic Islands.

Airports in the Balearics saw a year-on-year increase in passenger numbers of 2.4% between January and October 2025, with 15,628,717 international passengers landing on the islands’ runways, according to Majorca Daily News. However, October did see a slight decrease of 0.1% in passenger numbers compared to 2024.

Most passengers arrived on low-cost airlines, with 10,903,152 travellers arriving using services such as easyJet and Ryanair, while 4,725,565 flew on traditional airlines such as British Airways.

The data, which was released by Turespaña – the Tourism Institute of Spain – also showed that the UK made up the majority of tourists, with 2.2 million Brits arriving in Spain in October, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%, accounting for 21.7% of the total number of visitors arriving across the mainland and islands combined. The same month also saw a 14.6% increase in visitors from Ireland.

Brits are also the tourists most likely to use a budget airline. According to the data, over 30% of them arrive on this type of service.

Palma airport in Majorca is now the third busiest airport in all of Spain, with only Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona El Prat seeing more visitors. The island airport has welcomed 11,936,115 tourists this year, an increase of 2.3% compared to 2024.

Turespaña also revealed that tourist spending was on the rise. Visitors who arrived in Spain stayed on average for a week and spent €1,380 (about £1,217) per person.

Tourist officials in Ibiza were left panicking over the summer, as 20,000 fewer Brits visited the island during the peak months. Speaking at a conference in London, Ibiza’s Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauza admitted the numbers were “worrying”. However, the rise in overall visitors seems to suggest that while Brits may be avoiding the islands in the summer, they’re likely shifting their breaks to the shoulder season of September and October, where it’s cheaper and less busy.

Jaume Bauza reiterated that he was keen for Brits to visit Ibiza: “I want the British who visit our islands who are, and will always be, warmly welcome, to be aware of and familiar with this transformation process, because I want them to be aware and participate in the changes we are undertaking.”

READ MORE: I’m ex cabin crew – there’s one drink you should never have on a planeREAD MORE: Ryanair is ending flights to popular winter sun islands blaming ‘rising costs’

Like many areas of Spain, the Balearic Islands have seen anti-tourism protests, especially in Majorca, which is the most popular island for visiting Brits.

In June, around 10,000 people marched through the island’s capital of Palma, protesting overtourism and its effects on locals, such as rising house prices. There were also reports of anti-tourist graffiti with slogans such as ‘tourist go home’ and ‘rich foreign property buyers go to hell’ daubed on walls and monuments over the summer.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at [email protected]

Despite reports of tourists being driven away from Spain by protestors, one Spanish airport has reportedly seen a rise in the number of passengers passing through, with a third coming from the UK

Warnings of Spanish ghost towns and holidaymakers ditching the country do not apply for one popular region where visitor numbers are spiking.

A Spanish airport in the popular Costa Blanca region has reported its tenth consecutive record-breaking month for passenger numbers, almost surpassing last year’s passenger total with a fair few weeks remaining in 2025.

Alicante-Elche Airport welcomed 1.9 million passengers in October, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year, and 631,771 of those passengers were Brits, representing over a third of passenger traffic. This was followed by Germany, which represented 129,127 passengers and the Netherlands with 118,996.

So far in 2025, the airport has had 17.2 million people pass through its doors, and it’s estimated it could reach the 20 million mark by the end of the year, according to Spanish expat news outlet Olive Press. They also reported that the airport had its busiest October for flights yet with 11.931, an increase of 6.1% year on year.

Some of the additional traffic could be down to new routes opening up to Alicante. Ryanair recently announced new connections to and from Cardiff, Aberdeen, Bratislava, Linz, Salzburg, Bydgoszcz, Rzeszow, Stockholm Västerås, Småland, and Lanzarote.

Ryanair also added additional flights on 29 of their existing Alicante routes for its winter 2025 schedule, noting the destination’s popularity during the colder months. The airport is serviced by several budget airlines popular with Brits including easyJet, Jet2, Vueling, and Wizz Air, making it easily accessible from across the UK.

Alicante-Elche is the fifth busiest airport in Spain, and the largest in the Valencian Community. One of the reasons it’s a popular destination for Brits is its close proximity to Benidorm, with a direct bus from the airport to the holiday hotspot taking just 45 minutes.

It’s also just 20 minutes away from the centre of Alicante, which has cultural attractions and beautiful beaches. The Telegraph dubbed Alicante ‘Spain’s most underrated city break’ in a 2024 article.

READ MORE: ‘I’m a travel agent of 30 years and everyone must visit these 5 Spanish destinations’READ MORE: Major UK airport to see Emirates and easyJet update on November 18 and 19

The news comes amid speculation that the anti-tourism protests of 2023 and 2024 would deter tourists from taking Spanish holidays. While the majority of protests took place in cities such as Barcelona and on island locations like Majorca, it was speculated that anti-tourist sentiment could lead visitors to choose alternative destinations, such as Greece or Turkey.

Benidorm has also implemented some strict restrictions to keep rowdy Brits under control. Swimming in the sea is banned between the hours of midnight and 7am, with fines between €300 and €1,500 ( approx. £255 – £1,278). Reserving your spot can also land you in trouble, with sunbeds, towels, or umbrellas left on the sand before 9.30am removed, and potential fines of up to €250 (about £220.33) for leaving your belongings behind.

Smoking and vaping have also been banned from the beach, with reports of fines reaching the thousands.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at [email protected]