Russell Westbrook has gone - and taken with him a record that looked impossible

After 18 seasons, the most tireless guard in the modern NBA has called it a day. Russell Westbrook ended his career in Sacramento, where in the 2025/26 season he averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds across 64 games. Picked fourth in 2008, he was the face of Oklahoma for eleven seasons, especially after Kevin Durant left. The peak is the 2016/17 season: 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game, 42 triple-doubles and the MVP award. He averaged a triple-double in four different seasons - nobody else in history has. He finishes with 209 triple-doubles in the regular season, ninth on the all-time assists list, the first guard with over 9,000 rebounds. There is no ring - he came closest in the 2012 finals - but there is Olympic gold and statistics the next generation will look at as science fiction.

The Lakers sold for 12.5 billion dollars - ten months after the previous record

Mark Walter bought the club from the Buss family in October 2025 at a valuation of 10 billion dollars, then the highest price for a sports club anywhere in the world. Less than a year later he is selling it to Josh Kushner and former Disney boss Bob Iger for over 12.5 billion, if the NBA board of governors approves the deal. That is a jump of more than two billion in under twelve months, without a single game played between the two figures. The most interesting part is the turn: Kushner and Iger had already hired investment bankers and were considered favourites to land a new club through the league's expansion towards Las Vegas and Seattle. Instead, they bought an existing one. When building a new club looks more expensive than buying the most famous one, that says everything about what is actually being traded in the NBA - not teams, but brands.

Dončić promises the new owners a title - and now he is the one carrying the franchise

The reaction came fast. „Being a Laker means everything to me, and I cannot wait to get back on the court and bring a title to Los Angeles”, wrote Luka Dončić after the sale was announced, adding that he has grown used to big changes in recent years. There is a basis for that: in February 2025 he arrived from Dallas in a transfer that shook the league, then signed an extension for three years and 165 million dollars. After LeBron James's departure, the Slovenian is at the centre of every long-term plan at the club. Magic Johnson praised the new owners - he says he has known Iger for over 40 years and that he will bring trophies back. Promises at the start of every ownership era sound the same. The difference is that this time the club has a player who genuinely can deliver on them.

Efremovski stays at Rabotnički - ten seasons in one place is a rarity these days

The basketball club Rabotnički has announced it is continuing its cooperation with Viktor Efremovski, who has worn the shirt of the team from Gradski Park for ten seasons already. In basketball, where contracts last a season and a half and players change like statistics, ten years at one club is not a data point - it is a biography. Efremovski has consistently been among the best in the squad over that period, which also explains the management's decision to do everything to keep him. The former Macedonian champions have spent years building around the players they hold on to, not around the ones they bring in. Whether that strategy will be enough in the new season is another question - but at least it is a strategy.

MZT Skopje have signed Bošaleski - 22 years old, an international, and already under contract

Macedonian international Petar Bošaleski (22 years old, 197 centimetres) has officially signed for MZT Skopje ahead of the new season. The Ohrid native came through every youth national selection, and this summer played his first two games in the senior national team shirt, in the first phase of pre-qualifying for the 2029 European Championship. This is a shooting guard who has been built up over years in the domestic Superleague, not an imported name with a short story behind it. MZT is investing in a player already knocking on the national team's door - a more expensive, slower and riskier route than bringing in a ready-made foreigner. Which is exactly what makes it more interesting.