LeBron broke the record for the biggest pay cut, and Pelister signed an American with a Macedonian passport

LeBron James signed the largest pay cut in NBA history

LeBron James has signed a two-year deal with Philadelphia worth 8 million dollars, after earning 52.6 million at the Lakers last season. It is the biggest drop in salary any NBA player has ever accepted. For the 2026/27 season he will take around 3.88 million, with a player option of 4.07 million for the following year. Philadelphia had nothing but the veteran minimum to offer - the cap space is already spent on Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and new arrival Jaylen Brown. At 41, James is the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, so the contract figure is a number for headlines, not for his budget. „This is my final decision. I am not chasing money,” he wrote, explaining that he wants a fifth ring. The man who holds the record for most career points now also holds the record for the biggest salary sacrifice. Whether it pays off - June will decide.

Curry spoke for the first time about the failed transfer: „That is why you do not imagine anything until it happens”

Golden State spent the whole summer looking for a second star alongside Stephen Curry, and LeBron was the main target. Curry and Draymond Green tried to persuade him personally. It did not work. „That is why you do not imagine anything until it happens. There are a lot of moving parts,” Curry said. The situation at Golden State is harder than it looks from outside: Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody suffered serious knee injuries last season, and Curry himself played only 43 games because of a problem with his right knee. Even so he averaged 26.6 points, 4.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds with 39.3 percent from three. The team finished 37-45 and tenth in the West, got past the Clippers in the play-in, then lost to Phoenix 111-96. The biggest names on the market are gone. Golden State now has to extend Curry's career with small moves - and that is the most expensive way to waste time.

Petrušev on his knee: „Like being 36, not 26”

Serbian international Filip Petrušev revealed he played the entire season with seriously damaged cartilage and two bone oedemas in his right knee, getting through on injections and painkillers. „The situation was very specific, like being 30 or 36 rather than 26. The cartilage was so damaged that in some places there was almost none left,” he said. That is an injury players usually pick up at the end of a career. Even so, Petrušev was a key part of Dubai Basketball, which won the ABA League in only its second season of existence and debuted in the EuroLeague, where he averaged 11.6 points and 4.8 rebounds across 38 games. He is now in intensive rehabilitation. The story is familiar across the region: a young player takes injections to get through the game, and the bill arrives ten years earlier than it should. Who carries the risk when a 26-year-old plays on a 36-year-old's knee?

An American with a Macedonian passport at Pelister: Denning will play as a domestic player

KK Pelister has brought in a second signing for the 2026/27 season. After Blagoj Dimitriev, Alonzo Edward Denning has arrived in Bitola, a basketball player from the United States with Macedonian roots and Macedonian citizenship. That means he will be registered in the domestic league as a domestic player rather than a foreigner - the difference is literally one ID card, but in roster mathematics it is worth more than any statistic. Denning plays as a power forward and has previously played in Azerbaijan, Ecuador and Kosovo. He will be presented publicly at the start of pre-season. The Macedonian basketball league found this loophole in the regulations long ago and does not even try to hide it. The question nobody asks out loud: how many young domestic players sit on the bench so that room can be made for a „domestic player” landing in Skopje for the first time?

A third defeat for the Macedonian juniors: Hungary 86-63 in Rijeka

Macedonia's men's junior national team lost its third game at the Division B European Championship in Rijeka and Opatija, this time to Hungary 86-63. The match was settled in the first quarter - 21-6 to the Hungarians after ten minutes, a gap that never closed. In the second period our side held their own and won it 20-19, but by half-time the deficit was already 40-26. The statistics show where it broke: Hungary took almost twice as many rebounds, Macedonia committed 11 turnovers and hit only one three-pointer in the first half. Cvetkovski scored 22 points with four rebounds and four assists, Srebrov eight, Malinić seven - and that was it. A large share of these boys are playing at this level for the first time, so defeats are part of the arithmetic. The last group-stage game is on 29 July against Sweden. Nobody is looking for a medal here, only for proof that the second quarter was not an accident.