Dončić: "I'm a Laker now" - and won't rest without a title

Luka Dončić sent a message ahead of the new season that he rarely says out loud: he won't rest until Los Angeles wins another title. "I used to let my game do the talking, but I want Lakers fans to know that I'm ready," the Slovenian says. Last season's numbers back him up: the league's top scorer with 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds in 64 games, and First Team All-NBA for the sixth time. But his season ended on 2 April with a grade-two hamstring injury against Oklahoma City, and without him the Lakers got past the Rockets before being swept by the Thunder in the Western Conference semi-finals. The promise is bold - his health is what will decide it.

Super Cup in Kumanovo opens the Macedonian season

Macedonian basketball officially tips off on Saturday, 26 September, at 6 p.m., in the sports hall in Kumanovo. The "Dragan Vasilov - Cevka" Super Cup brings together MZT Skopje Aerodrom, who last season won both the league title and the Macedonian Cup, and MKK Kumanovo, the Cup finalists. So it's a rematch of last year's Cup final, which MZT won precisely against Kumanovo. MRT will broadcast the game. The question is whether Kumanovo will settle last year's score in front of their own fans - or whether MZT will start the season exactly where they finished it.

Durant: "I'm not thinking about that"

At the Rockets' media day, Kevin Durant brushed off the question of whether Houston will be the last stop of his career. "I'm not thinking about anything like that. I'm taking it day by day," said the 38-year-old, who is entering his 20th NBA season. Last season he averaged 26 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists, shooting 52 percent from the field and 41 percent from three - enough for Second Team All-NBA. This season he will earn 43.9 million dollars, and he has a 46.1 million option for 2027/28. There's no contract extension yet. When someone says "day by day" with 46 million on the table, retirement really can wait.

MZT: 26 games in three months

The champions are heading into a breathless season: 26 games in three months by the end of the year, on average one every 80 hours. Ten games await in the FIBA Europe Cup, 11 in the Superleague, four in the ABA 2 league, plus the Super Cup. "The pace will be really hellish, but we have enough players," says coach Vasko Atanasov, who promises MZT will go for the win in every game. After Kumanovo come three home games at "Jane Sandanski": Sloboda Užice in ABA 2 (30 September), Kumanovo in the Superleague (3 October) and Greece's Iraklis in the Europe Cup (6 October). A deep roster looks good on paper - November will show how deep it really is.

Len arrived, did one practice and left

Ukrainian centre Alex Len and Baskonia have terminated his contract by mutual agreement, nine days after the two-year deal was officially announced on 14 September. Len passed his medical, did one practice and felt the old pain in his foot, in the same spot he had treated at Real Madrid. The club insists there's no new injury, but both sides concluded that parting ways was the best solution. At Real last season he averaged a modest 3 points and 2 rebounds in just over 9 minutes in the EuroLeague, and he missed the Final Four in Athens. What's a medical worth if the pain comes back after the first practice?