Walkup left Olympiacos for 2.6 million dollars: Dubai buys whatever it wants

The saga is over. Thomas Walkup continues his career at Dubai Basketball, after Olympiacos finally gave in and accepted an offer of around 2.6 million dollars, according to Greek media. The 33-year-old point guard's contract had no buyout clause, which meant the two clubs had to negotiate his release directly. Dubai made several offers, all previously rejected - until the price got high enough that refusing became untenable.

Walkup arrived in Piraeus from Žalgiris in 2021 and grew into one of the best defensive guards in the EuroLeague - defensive player of the year in 2024 and first in steals in the 2022/23 season. In its statement Olympiacos lists 12 trophies in five years, five consecutive Final Fours and the top of Europe last May. The EuroLeague, meanwhile, has opened disciplinary proceedings against Dubai over the way it approached the player while he was still under contract. The club that breaks the rules pays a fine, and the player leaves anyway. Where have we seen that scene before?

Ben Simmons returns to the NBA, but Sacramento does not want him as a mentor

Three-time NBA All-Star Ben Simmons has signed a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings worth around 3.5 million dollars - a return to the league after a full season off the court. He last played for Brooklyn and the Clippers in the 2024/25 campaign. The Kings watched him at an official workout last month and have not let go of the idea since.

What is more interesting is what they do not expect from him. "Be careful if you expect Simmons to mentor Acuff or any of the young players in Sacramento," wrote Jason Jones of The Athletic. "Given that he has just missed an entire season and that his commitment has been in question for years, that is not a role that suits him." A club building around young players signs an experienced veteran and immediately explains publicly that it will not treat him as a leader. That is honest - and it says more about Simmons's reputation than any statistic.

FIBA is changing the rules on shooting and unsportsmanlike fouls, and the referees no longer know what they are looking for

From 1 October 2026 two major changes to FIBA's rules take effect - on the concept of the "act of shooting" and on unsportsmanlike fouls. BasketNews officiating consultant Todd Wornik warns the changes are needlessly complicated and introduce terminology that does not belong in basketball. The first feedback is bad: referees are already reporting confusion and a lack of clarity.

The intention was good. For years we have watched players bend the rules to draw a shooting foul, often from 10, 15 and even 20 metres - implausible "shots" that were whistled anyway. The new rule says an act of shooting exists only if the attacker is in the frontcourt, except at the expiry of a period or the shot clock. But into that same rule has been shoved the line that the act of shooting on a jump shot begins when the player starts moving his shoulders and the ball upwards towards the basket.

This is where it falls apart. The shoulder does not lift the ball - it moves the upper arm, which moves the forearm, the hand and the ball. On a typical jump shot the shoulders stay at roughly the same height while the arms go up. So the referee is meant to catch a moment that does not anatomically exist. If referees cannot explain the rule to coaches and players, there is no chance the crowd will understand what is happening on court. And we in Macedonia will be watching these rules in ABA2 and in the domestic league, where there is not even half the video technology the EuroLeague has.

Atanasov before MZT's new season: a run at the trophies and a win in every game

The basketball players of MZT Skopje Aerodrom have been three weeks into intense training ahead of a season on three fronts - the domestic league, ABA2 and the FIBA Europe Cup. Coach Vasko Atanasov set the expectations without diplomacy: a run at the trophies and a win in every game. "We have built a very compact, versatile and combative squad that will certainly play the basketball MZT Skopje ought to play," he said after the preparations and the first friendly.

The number from that first friendly against Kožuv is 111 points - which tells you which way the idea is going. Atanasov insists on fast basketball and fighting on court, and the next opponent is GKK Štip on Wednesday, at the opening of the Jackson sports centre. A friendly with 111 points means nothing in November, but it does mean the team at least knows what is being asked of it. The question is always the same: will that speed hold up once the calendar starts stacking three competitions on top of each other.

8 September 2011: the day McCalebb gave Macedonia a win for its birthday

Macedonia has just marked the 35th birthday of its independence, and one of the finest sporting gifts in its history arrived on its twentieth. On 8 September 2011, at the EuroBasket in Lithuania, the Macedonian basketball team beat Georgia 65:63 and reached the quarter-finals.

The game in Vilnius went to the last second. At 63:63 with only two seconds left, the ball reached Lester Bo McCalebb. He set off on his trademark drive, cut through the Georgian defence and scored for 65:63. McCalebb finished the game with 27 points and was comfortably the most productive player on court, but it is those last two that are remembered. After the match, caught up in the euphoria, he offered a three-word tribute: "Long live Macedonia!"

Fifteen years later that date is still retold - not because of the placement, but because of the feeling that one sporting win can make a national holiday better. That is also a measure of how rarely it happens to us. When a win from 2011 is still the strongest sporting image tied to 8 September, the question is not how good that generation was, but what the basketball federation has done since to build a new one.