The Macedonian 3x3 side vanished from Taranto, and the Olympic Committee is silent on why

Macedonia registered four players for the 3x3 basketball tournament at the 20th Mediterranean Games in Taranto: Karlo Dimeski, Marko Dimovski, Milos Knezevic and Maksim Trajkovski. In the opening days the team was on the fixture list. When the matches began, it simply was not there in the time slots. The Macedonian Olympic Committee replied that its president Daniel Dimevski had already reported the case to the International Olympic Committee and that legal proceedings had begun - but "in the interest of the proceedings themselves" they disclose not a single detail about what happened. So somebody registered a national team, somebody took it to Italy, and then something ensured it did not play. The legal proceedings will tell the lawyers something. The question a taxpayer has every right to ask is simpler: who missed the deadline, or the signature, or the flight? The 3x3 gold went to Spain against Italy. Macedonia came back from Taranto with one gold - Matej Belistojanovski in karate - two silvers and three bronzes. Basketball is not on that list, but not because it lost on court.

MZT Skopje have found their point guard: Tadija Tadic comes from the Serbian school

Macedonian basketball champions MZT Skopje are still assembling the roster for the 2026/2027 season, and the latest addition comes from next door. Tadija Tadic is a point guard with long experience, a former Partizan player who has already played in Macedonia too - in the Kumanovo shirt. So this is not a risky import from a catalogue but a player who knows the league and the halls in it. For a club that has to defend a title every year on a Skopje budget rather than a Belgrade or Athens one, a point guard with steady hands is precisely the position where a mistake costs most. Whether Tadic will be the man who holds the game together in the stretches where MZT historically lose it - that will be settled by the first real derby, not by the announcement.

Kawhi Leonard is back in Toronto, and the Clippers have paid the most expensive fine in NBA history

The saga is finally over. The Toronto Raptors and the LA Clippers finalised the trade on Monday evening, after both clubs called the NBA office. Kawhi Leonard returns to Canada, and the Clippers receive Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031 and 2033), a 2027 pick swap and two future second-round picks. The deal was struck back in June but waited months because of the NBA investigation into salary cap circumvention at the Clippers. It closed only after owner Steve Ballmer issued a statement apologising and taking full responsibility for the violations connected to Leonard - violations that brought the heaviest penalty in league history. Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 65 games last season, a career high in scoring. In Toronto he already has the 2019 title, won in one of sport's most famous "arrived, conquered, left" seasons. Now he returns to where he became a legend - while the Clippers pay the price for the way they got him the first time.

EuroLeague salaries have reached NBA territory: Micic on 5.6 million euros

Vasilije Micic enters the 2026/27 season as the highest-paid player in the EuroLeague - around 5.6 million euros net a year at Hapoel Tel Aviv, according to research by BasketNews, plus bonuses and club equity he received on signing in 2025. Behind him come two Panathinaikos players: Nigel Hayes-Davis on around 5 million and Kendrick Nunn on around 4.3 million. The numbers point to something bigger than one transfer. Two years ago only three players in the EuroLeague earned over 3 million euros - this season that figure is nearly three times higher, with around ten above that line. The top salary in the league has risen by almost 2 million euros in two years, from about 3.7 to 5.6 million. For comparison, the median NBA salary this season is around 6 million dollars, but gross - while European contracts are net, so the top ten in the EuroLeague take home roughly what an average NBA player on a median salary does. And here comes the part nobody in the league wants to comment on: EuroLeague contracts are not public, so even direct sources give different figures. Millions paid to players watched by the whole of Europe, and the size of those sums is a business secret.

The EuroLeague has changed the rulebook: no more unsportsmanlike foul

Before the start of the new season, the EuroLeague published a series of changes applying to the new Super Cup as well as to the EuroLeague and EuroCup in 2026/27. The biggest: the unsportsmanlike foul disappears and splits into two new categories - a "disruptive" foul for contact that stops play without being rough, for example breaking up a fast break, and a "flagrant" one for contact that is not a legitimate basketball play or is reckless and dangerous. Technical fouls are also split into two groups: the first leads to disqualification and covers disrespect in communication, provocation and simulating a foul; the second does not lead to disqualification and covers delaying the game and hanging on the rim. A player is disqualified after two technicals from the first category, two flagrants, or one of each. The definition of the shooting motion changes too - it begins the moment the player raises their shoulders and the ball towards the basket. Coaches get two challenges each but lose one if they do not use it in the first 38 minutes, and they may not challenge who exactly committed a foul. BasketNews officiating consultant Todd Wornick has already warned that the new terminology is unnecessarily complicated. When one rule needs a whole paragraph to explain, it is worth asking what exactly was supposed to be fixed.