EuroLeague and the NBA: months of talks, and not one document on the table

EuroLeague chief executive Chus Bueno said out loud what everyone had assumed: "To this day we have received nothing from the NBA about what a partnership or cooperation would look like." Confidentiality agreements have been signed, so neither side will comment until they jointly decide there is something to share. Bueno says the EuroLeague will consider any concrete offer and take it to the club owners. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said again this week that "progress is being made" and that the league would be stronger if it joined forces with the EuroLeague. So: there are talks, there is no document. In European basketball that usually means one side is waiting for the other to move first - while the clubs, who occupy those ownership seats, are meanwhile planning budgets for a season whose rules nobody knows.

Kawhi Leonard returns to Toronto, and with a 126-million-dollar contract

According to insider Jake Fischer, Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors are close to an extension - he is eligible to sign a two-year deal worth up to 126 million dollars. The trade with the Clippers was officially completed on Monday, more than two months after it was agreed on 30 June. Toronto sent Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks for 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap and two second-rounders. The delay was not accidental: the NBA was investigating whether the Clippers had circumvented salary cap rules, and the club was fined 30 million dollars, stripped of five first-round picks, and owner Steve Ballmer was suspended for a year. Leonard paid 700,000 dollars. So the system found enough evidence to suspend an owner - and the player at the centre of the case now gets a new nine-figure contract. In Toronto they remember something else: 2019 and the only championship ring in the club's history.

Curry does not want free agency like LeBron: "I have always said I want to stay"

Asked whether he would go through a free agency process like LeBron James did this summer, Stephen Curry answered briefly: "Not at all. I have always said I want to stay in Golden State until the end." He has one year left on his contract and will earn 62.5 million dollars in the 2026/27 season, and according to salary cap expert Bobby Marks he can sign a maximum two-year extension worth 136.7 million dollars at any point until 30 June 2027. At 38, he averaged 26.6 points, 4.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds last season, but played only 43 games because of knee trouble. A rare scene in the NBA: a player who does not use his market power as leverage. The question is whether Golden State will honour his loyalty or charge him for it.

Pero Antić hit out at modern basketball: the soul is gone, they play for money, not for the club

Former Macedonian international Pero Antić, later also head of the Federation, spoke openly about the number of foreigners in European clubs and pointed to the Serbian "eternal derby" as an example - there are barely any local players in the starting fives of Crvena Zvezda and Partizan. In his view, it is precisely the lack of players with a real attachment to the club that is one reason the Serbian giants do not take a bigger step in the EuroLeague. Antić admitted he had been a foreigner at many clubs himself, but never let that affect his relationship with the team. He also addressed the growth of budgets: the sums spent today were unimaginable in his time. From a man who spent his whole career in that same system, this is not nostalgia - it is testimony. And it applies to every league in the region, not just the Serbian one.

Dimitrijević top scorer for Aris in Belgrade, but Zvezda settled it in the third quarter

Nenad Dimitrijević was the best player on the losing side in the friendly against Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade - 16 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists. Aris lost narrowly 91:87, a huge improvement on the game a few days earlier, when the same opponent won 98:74. After the first period the visitors led 44:41, and then the hosts settled the matter in the third quarter, which they won 26:19. Nwora was best for Zvezda with 25 points. Friendlies do not go into any table, but they show something: a 24-point gap shrank to four within days. The Macedonian point guard is once again the man carrying the offensive load - the question is whether Aris will hold up when the season actually starts.