Skopje and Gevgelija open the under-16 EuroBasket, and the federation defends its reputation

From Thursday to 15 August, Macedonia hosts the European Championship, Division B for basketball players under 16. The games are played in Skopje, at the T Arena, and in Gevgelija, at the „NB Noel” and „26 April” halls. The Basketball Federation of Macedonia has organised several youth European championships in recent years and with this, as it announced, again confirms its position as a reliable partner of the European federation. That is the wording of the press release. The other number is more real: hosting a U16 championship brings a dozen teams, their families and scouts into two towns in the middle of August - an economy no marketing plan can produce on its own. The question that remains is the one that always remains after tournaments like this - how many of those boys will have somewhere to play in Macedonia in five years?

Dončić is a hundred percent fit, and the Lakers enter a season with nobody left to apologise to

Luka Dončić wrote to fans that his recovery went excellently and that he is „100 percent healthy again”. The Slovenian ended last regular season with a grade-two hamstring tear - an injury that wrecked both the MVP campaign in which he led the NBA in scoring with 33.5 points a game and the Lakers' chances. He had to travel to Europe for specialist treatment, and still ended up sidelined exactly when he was needed most: watching the team go out to the Oklahoma City Thunder without a win in the second round of the play-offs. Now, with LeBron James gone, the spotlight is his alone. Here this name does not read as foreign news - Dončić is from the neighbourhood and the region follows him as one of its own. A healthy Dončić means a team that is interesting again. A healthy Dončić with no excuses means a team from which everything will be demanded.

Jokić turns down the supermax for the second time, and the nerves are already showing in Denver

Nikola Jokić is eligible for a contract extension worth around 278 to 280 million dollars over four years - and for the second year running he is not signing it. The logic is financial: if he waits one more summer, he can sign a deal paying him 80 million dollars at the age of 37. Except that in the NBA a postponed signature never stays mere accounting. Insider Marc Stein says the whole league is looking at Denver and that the whispers are inevitable, however financially justified the decision is. The Nuggets are coming off a disappointing first-round exit, with one of the most expensive payrolls in the league and an open question around Peyton Watson, who wants a big contract and has interest from other teams. When the best player in the world says „not now” twice in a row, the club no longer has room for an average season.

MZT Skopje signed Nikolić, and Pelister is already counting a fifth addition

Macedonian basketball's summer is being played on the transfer market, not on the court. Champions MZT Skopje signed Serbian centre Dimitrije Nikolić (28 years old, 211 centimetres), a player with four seasons at Partizan Belgrade from 2017 to 2021 and appearances for Sloga Kraljevo, Sloboda Užice, FMP and Zlatibor, plus international experience in Craiova and Brașov in Romania and in Lithuania. He is the fourth international addition after Americans Leslie Warner and Noah Farahan and Bosnian centre Emir Krajinić, with Vasko Atanasov staying on as coach. In Bitola, Pelister is among the most active - it brought back experienced guard Ivan Sapundžiev (31), who already wore the green and white from 2022 to 2024, and signed a one-year deal with Viktor Zlatevski (25), arriving from Feniks 2010. Next season MZT plays in the domestic competitions, the ABA2 league and the FIBA Europe Cup. The rosters are filling fast. Whether the crowds return to the halls at the same pace is an entirely different question.

Satoranský left Barcelona and did not hide why: the football board neglected the basketball side

Tomáš Satoranský left Barcelona for Hapoel Tel Aviv and, unlike the usual diplomatic farewells, said what he thinks. „Barcelona was a huge disappointment in terms of how the football board treated basketball”, said the Czech, adding that for years they put obstacles in the way and showed that winning in basketball was not particularly important to them. He spent six seasons at the club across two spells and was captain, with the last years marked by financial problems, an ageing roster and too little depth. Averaging 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the EuroLeague last season, he was forced to carry too much of a load because the club had no second reliable playmaker - which made his back problems worse. In Tel Aviv, with Vasilije Micić leading the offence, he expects a role as second or third playmaker. So a player of 34 leaves in order to protect himself from his own club.