Another red light special for LeBron
After an eventful day, LeBron tips in a Lakers win.
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The NBA Is Going to Try to Kill the Euroleague
According to The Athletic, Adam Silver is seeking NBA Board of Governors approval on Thursday to move forward with planning a 16-team European league in partnership with FIBA, starting play as early as 2026. The story cites four teams as rumored to be ready to jump to the new league: Barcelona, Real Madrid, ASVEL (Tony Parker's squad in the Lyon suburbs) and Fenerbahce.
Why is the NBA doing this? They have clearly long wanted more involvement in European club basketball, and Euroleague has been standoffish to intrusion from the biggest league in the world. It's understandable. Euroleague has also had regular quarrels with FIBA, who has more or less tried to elbow Euroleague out by creating their own continental soccer-style "champions league." It hasn't done the trick. So the NBA and FIBA are teaming up to take over the top level of European club basketball. As always, it's about money. But it might also be a little personal with Euroleague, which is essentially just a money-printing "champions league" style competition in the first place.
Greater NBA involvement in Europe would open up the possibilities for a more global club tournament that NBA owners could whine about in the future. You also wonder if the NBA and players' union could get creative about assigning players not just to G League affiliates, but also to European clubs.
I think consolidation like this is generally bad because it flattens what pro basketball is globally. And it would appear this is way for the NBA to let sovereign wealth funds into the business without getting them heavily involved in domestic club ownership. (I'm really curious how involved sovereign wealth funds were in bidding for the Celtics.) But it would be interesting to see what the NBA could do for continental club basketball. Color me intrigued.
Scores
Oh, you think the tank is your ally. You merely adopted the tank. The Sixers were born in it, molded by it
— Jawn Gonzalez (@johngonzalez.bsky.social) 2025-03-27T01:26:32.814Z
Clippers 126, Knicks 113 – The Los Angeles Clippers! It's a problem that I'm falling for this again, right? It's a character flaw? There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again." Well I'm getting fooled again.
Lakers 120, Pacers 119 – So LeBron James had an eventful day. After an hour-long interview with Pat McAfee and the announcement of the return of his Mind the Game podcast with new co-host Steve Nash, he tipped in a game-winning buzzer beater in Indiana.
What a wild final minute there. The Pacers get a fortunate stop on Dorian Finney-Smith's biff, then try to burn out as much clock as possible, knowing one more stop can end the game. But the bad Indy possession finishes with a live ball rebound from Luka Doncic, and J.J. Redick elects not to call timeout, and Luka gets a pretty darn good look that leaves just a fraction of a second for LeBron to tip it in. Phenomenal finish!
Both of these teams are quite good. Helluva game. The ghosts of the 2000 Finals live!
Raptors 116, Nets 86 – Win No. 26 for the Raptors, leaving the Nets and Sixers at 23 wins each. Toronto should end up with the seventh worst record in the league, unless one of these other teams goes on a surprise win streak.
Bucks 117, Nuggets 127 – So, Nikola Jokic is back.
Just incredible. The opposite baseline shot showing Brook Lopez looking away just as Jokic floats the ball past his head. What a joy it is to watch Nikola Jokic play basketball.
He had 39-10-10 in his first game back.
No Giannis Antetokounmpo in this one. It's not clear how serious his sprained left foot will be. The Bucks are 2 games behind Indiana with the tiebreaker and now a half-game behind Detroit.
Celtics 132, Suns 102 – Phoenix has the No. 8 offense in the NBA and a bottom-five defense. A Mike Budenholzer-coached team with a bottom-five defense. That's how structural the problems are here. The Celtics can make any team look like a bottom-five defense, and they definitely did that to the Suns. Because the Suns are indeed a bottom-five defense.
Phoenix once again slips into a tie with Dallas for No. 10, a half-game behind Sacramento for No. 9. I'm starting to think we should just let the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in the West into the playoffs straight away.
Schedule
All times Eastern. Important games get asterisks.
Spurs at Cavaliers, 7
Mavericks at Magic, 7, NBA TV*
Pacers at Wizards, 7
Hawks at Heat, 7:30*
Lakers at Bulls, 8*
Grizzlies at Thunder, 8**
Rockets at Jazz, 9
Blazers at Kings, 10*
Alright, that's all. Be excellent to each other.
