Category: NBA

More details are emerging about a company that allegedly paid Clippers star Kawhi Leonard millions, including that the team came close in 2021 to granting naming rights for its Inglewood arena to Aspiration Partners.

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer nearly granted naming rights to the company, but ended up choosing financial services firm Intuit to grace the $2-billion venue, a source familiar with the matter said. Intuit, which has a $186-billion net worth and developed TurboTax, Credit Karma and QuickBooks, ended up paying a reported $500 million over 23 years for the naming rights. The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Four years later, Aspiration, a sustainability firm that also generated and sold carbon credits, is out of business. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg has agreed to plead guilty to defrauding multiple investors and lenders. Listed among creditors in Aspiration's bankruptcy documents is Leonard, raising questions about whether his $28-million endorsement deal with the company skirted NBA salary cap rules.

One of the investors Sanberg defrauded was Ballmer, listed by Fortune magazine as the sixth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $157 billion. The Clippers owner invested $50 million in Aspiration, which in turn entered into a $330-million sponsorship agreement with the team.

This week, the Athletic reported allegations that Aspiration agreed to pay Leonard $28 million for a job with no responsibilities. Anonymous sources quoted by the outlet said the payment was an effort to circumvent the NBA salary cap.

Ballmer was interviewed Thursday night by ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and denied involvement in Leonard's deal with Aspiration, but the NBA has launched an investigation.

Ballmer said he was "conned" by the company and that the Clippers did not circumvent NBA salary cap rules, which the team was accused of doing in a podcast report by Pablo Torre of the Athletic.

Ballmer told Shelburne that Aspiration offered more than Intuit for dome naming rights, and a Clippers spokesman confirmed that account. However, Ballmer insisted that the Clippers did not violate NBA rules against skirting the salary cap, and the team had agreed to a contract extension with Leonard and the sponsorship deal with Aspiration before the player and the company met.

Read more:Questions over Kawhi Leonard payments put focus on NBA salary cap

"We were done with Kawhi, we were done with Aspiration," Ballmer said. "The deals were all locked and loaded. Then, they did request to be introduced to Kawhi, and under the rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can't be involved."

The Clippers signed Leonard to a four-year, $176-million contract in August 2021 even though he was recovering from a partially torn ACL in his right knee that kept him sidelined the entire 2021-22 season. Ballmer said the sponsorship deal with Aspiration was completed in September 2021 and that the Clippers introduced Leonard to Aspiration two months later.

"As part of our cooperation with the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, we produced texts and emails," Ballmer said. "It was part of the document production in their investigation. We even found the email that made the first introduction [between Aspiration and Leonard]. It was early in November.

"Where could any of this circumvention happened? It couldn’t have, it didn’t. The introduction got made and they were off to the races on their own. We weren’t involved."

The Boston Sports Journal reported that Leonard did not appear in promotional material as other endorsers did because Aspiration executives "saw no brand synergy with Leonard and chose not to use his services. They instead preferred to partner with climate-focused influencers."

Ballmer couldn't explain why Leonard did no marketing or endorsement work for Aspiration, telling Shelburne that he never spoke with the player about his deal with the company.

"I don’t know why they did what they did and I don’t know how different it is, I really don’t," he said. "And, frankly, any speculation would be crazy. These were guys who committed fraud. Look, they conned me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up-and-up and they conned me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they did anything they did."

The salary cap is a dollar amount that limits what teams can spend on player payroll. The purpose of the cap is to ensure parity, preventing the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller markets to acquire the best players.

Circumventing the cap by paying a player outside of his contract is strictly prohibited. Teams that exceed the cap must pay luxury tax penalties that grow increasingly severe. Revenues from the tax penalties are then distributed in part to smaller-market teams and in part to teams that do not exceed the salary cap.

The NBA said it will investigate the allegations laid out by Torre. Ballmer said he welcomes the probe. If allegations were made against a team other than the Clippers, "I’d want the league to investigate, to take it seriously," he said.

"We know the rules, and if anything is not clear, we remind ourselves what the rules are. And we make it absolutely clear we will abide by those rules."

The cap was implemented before the 1984-85 season at a mere $3.6 million. Ten years later, it was $15.9 million, and 10 years after that it had risen to $43.9 million. By the 2014-15 season it was $63.1 million.

The biggest spike came before the 2016-2017 season when it jumped to $94 million because of an influx of revenue from a new nine-year, $24-billion media rights deal with ESPN and TNT.

Salary cap rules negotiated between the NBA and the players’ union are spelled out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Proven incidents of teams circumventing the cap are few, with a violation by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2000 serving as the most egregious.

The Timberwolves made a secret agreement with free agent and former No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Smith, signing him to a succession of below-market one-year deals in order to enable the team to go over the cap with a huge contract ahead of the 2001-02 season.

The NBA voided his contract, fined the Timberwolves $3.5 million, and stripped them of five first-round draft picks — two of which were later returned. Also, owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale were suspended.

Then-NBA commissioner David Stern told the Minnesota Star Tribune at the time: “What was done here was a fraud of major proportions. There were no fewer than five undisclosed contracts tightly tucked away, in the hope that they would never see the light of day. … The magnitude of this offense was shocking.”

According to Article 13 of the CBA, if the Clippers were found to have circumvented the cap, it would be a first offense punishable by a $4.5-million fine, the loss of one first-round draft pick, and voiding of Leonard’s contract. However, the Clippers don’t have a first-round pick until 2027.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Sign up for Sportico's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tatum ‘moving around way better' amid Achilles rehab, C's teammate says originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

It’s hard not to notice when Jayson Tatum enters a room.

Just ask Jordan Walsh, who’s seen plenty of his Boston Celtics teammate this summer — even as Tatum recovers from a ruptured Achilles he suffered during the second round of the playoffs back in May.

“The energy in the gym changes when he walks through,” Walsh told Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg on the latest episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast. “He’s not the most vocal guy, but he’s more of a silent leader.

“Him and JB (Jaylen Brown) are more silent leaders. So, when they step in the gym, you can feel the energy shift. You can feel the attention going to them.”

🔊 Celtics Talk Podcast: Jordan Walsh on ‘dog fight’ Celtics workouts & how the energy changes when Tatum is in the gym | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

According to Walsh, Tatum has been shifting that energy on a regular basis, routinely showing up at the team’s practice facility throughout the summer to grind through rehab workouts. The third-year forward has noticed a significant improvement in Tatum’s mobility as a result of those workouts.

“We’ve seen him so often,” Walsh said. “I’ve seen him from when he messed up his Achilles to now, and it’s a big difference. He’s moving around way better. So, he’s progressing well. I’m definitely happy to see him getting back healthy.”

From having surgery mere hours after his injury to doing pool workouts in early July to ditching his walking boot in August, Tatum seems determined to accelerate the timeline of his recovery. His fellow Celtics have noticed, with Walsh noting that Tatum’s mere presence at the facility has motivated players like himself to work harder.

“To see him in the gym definitely sets a precedent for everybody else,” Walsh added. “If a guy is hurt and trying to get back, then you can do the same thing. Like, you’re perfectly healthy, you should be doing the same thing.”

Tatum’s progress is undoubtedly encouraging. But even if he’s ready to play by late February or early March (about nine to 10 months after his surgery), it’s still possible the Celtics keep him out or slow-play his return to ensure he’s 100 percent healthy for the 2026-27 campaign, instead of rushing him back amid a season with lower expectations.

Either way, younger players like Walsh, second-year wing Baylor Scheierman and rookie Hugo Gonzalez will have opportunity for larger roles while Tatum is sidelined. And it sounds like there’s already a fierce competition playing out for those minutes on the Celtics’ practice courts.

“The energy is already different. You can feel it,” Walsh said. “It’s kind of like, everybody’s trying to find their footing. Everybody’s trying to make their way, because it’s a bunch of young guys who are not necessarily proven. It’s a lot of potential and unproven talent that’s on the team.

“You can feel it in every workout where everybody is going at each other’s necks. Everybody’s trying to earn that spot, earn that playing time, earn that position. So, it’s like a dog fight right now.”

Check out Walsh’s full interview with Forsberg on the latest Celtics Talk Podcast:

Ramp to Camp: The Celtics will fall short of expectations this season if… originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Expectations for the Boston Celtics’ 2025-26 season have been tempered so greatly by the offseason roster changes that we’d go so far as to suggest it’s nearly impossible for this team to fall short of expectations.

If the Celtics thrive behind the remaining core members of the championship squad and get increased contributions from the younger players who are about to step into larger roles, the season will be deemed a success. If things go awry and the team is forced to prioritize longer-term goals while also emerging with a decent draft pick, the season likewise could be viewed as a success.

On Thursday, we pondered the potential pathways to the Celtics exceeding expectations during the 2025-26 season. In the interest of fairness, we asked our panel in Part 5 of our Ramp to Camp series to consider how Boston potentially could fall short of expectations in the upcoming campaign.

In our mind, multiple things would have to occur to even ponder if the team fell short of expectations: 

1. Jayson Tatum endures any sort of setback in his recovery that hinders his ability to be at full strength for the start of the 2026-27 season.
2. Younger players on the roster show limited signs of development, leaving the team uncertain on exactly who might comprise the depth pieces on Boston’s next title-contending team.
3. Remaining core players struggle in increased roles and don’t make the sort of progress that could accelerate Boston’s return to contender status.

It’s hard for us to envision any of these options happening. Tatum has aggressively attacked his rehab, and his progress will serve as a perpetual reminder that brighter days are ahead, regardless of how the team fares in his absence. Younger players have expressed excitement in being able to show what they are capable of this season and we expect every roster player will embrace increased opportunity this season.

The Celtics already extended Joe Mazzulla, giving him the security to endure any bumps in the road. New ownership seems committed to keeping much of the brain trust of this organization in place, which should help the team navigate this mini-transition period as well. 

We’re strangely invigorated to watch how the season unfolds without the stress of championship-or-bust expectations. While we’ve been spoiled by the success of this team, we suspect fans will embrace a group that tries to mask a talent drain by playing harder and faster. 

We’ll see how the Celtics navigate periods of turbulence and whether that changes how we view the season. The margin for success is razor-thin given the absence of Tatum and the depth depletion. But we suspect it will be very hard for this team to fall short of expectations. Questions will be answered, paths will be charted. And then expectations for future seasons can start to climb.

Now it’s our panel’s turn to finish the sentence. The Celtics will fall short of expectations this season if …

Darren Hartwell, Managing Editor

Any starter misses any significant time due to injury.

If Jaylen Brown goes down, you’re looking at Baylor Scheierman playing meaningful minutes. If Derrick White or Payton Pritchard are sidelined, Hugo Gonzalez may need to take on a larger role.

Boston’s top five by itself stacks up favorably with the rest of the league, but there’s not much depth behind that group, which means the margin for error is razor-thin.

Michael Hurley, Web Producer

If we’re looking at Tankathon in March, then that’ll be disappointing.

With Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, the Celtics shouldn’t be worse than a .500 team. There are some holes on the roster, but they should still be better than your Wizards and Hornets of the world. And last year, a .500 season was good enough to nab the seventh seed in the East.

A 41-41 season is nothing to get too jazzed up about in Boston, but the floor for 2025-26 — even without Tatum — shouldn’t be much lower than that.

Sean McGuire, Web Producer

They miss the playoffs.

I don’t think we should expect to be looking at NBA Draft Lottery odds in late-February or early March, although AJ Dybantsa teaming up with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in 2026-27 would be pretty sweet. Still, are there really eight Eastern Conference teams with more talent or winning pedigree than Joe Mazzulla’s side? I have a hard time believing that.

There’s something to be said about continuing the longest active postseason run in the NBA (11 consecutive seasons).

Josh Canu, Media Editor

Jaylen Brown or Derrick White miss significant time.

The roster is as thin as it has ever been, and if one of your top two dogs go down with injury, it could get ugly quickly. White has proven to be an ironman, but Jaylen stepping into the Tatum role for the entire season does have me a little concerned with his durability. 

Max Lederman, Content Producer

You set the expectations too high!

This is a unique season for the Celtics and their fans, so I implore you to just have fun watching basketball and focus on any positives you can find.

Kevin Miller, VP, Content

Turnovers and lack of rebounding.

I’m concerned about giving up a bunch of second-chance points and having some live-ball turnover moments that could change wins to losses.

Adam Hart, EP, Content Strategy

Neemias Queta and Chris Boucher are overmatched upfront.

Jayson Tatum’s rebounding and length defending is gone and the team must find ways to mask that.

In one of my earlier attempts at playing NBA 2K26, I noticed how red Luka Dončić’s face was. The sweat was visible, as if he were playing an actual basketball game.

Very realistic, very detailed. The kind of details those who grew up in the ’80s playing games like Double Dribble may have once envisioned on their screens. The enhanced visuals are just a sample of a new gaming experience.

All versions of 2K26 are available for purchase Friday. Those who bought the “Superstar” or “Leave No Doubt” deluxe editions were able to access the game on Aug. 29. Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is this year’s cover athlete on the game’s Standard Edition. Chicago Sky star Angel Reese is the on the cover of the WNBA Edition.

Carmelo Anthony, who will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, is the cover athlete for the Superstar Edition, an exclusive that includes 100,000 virtual currency (VC), a digital form of currency used to purchase upgrades within the game. All three athletes made the cover of the Leave No Doubt Edition, a special release that includes everything in the Superstar Edition plus an additional 35,000 VC.

Developed by Visual Concepts, 2K26 picks up with enhancements in the realism of the gameplay from 2K25. The defensive improvements I liked from last year’s game are better and individualized. Alex Caruso’s on-ball defense, for example, doesn’t resemble Lu Dort’s defensive tendencies. The overall movement looks and feels better, but the on-ball defense and ability to contest shots are two of the more noticeable improvements 2K focused on this year — the two that I liked most.

The changes in this year’s version of the game aren’t drastic, but they are detectable enough to offer a new experience for those who enjoy the 2K franchise.

Gameplay

The individuality added to player movements has improved from last year with the ProPlay system that takes players’ moves and tendencies and incorporates them into the game. Some of this is best seen with some of the NBA legends. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook looks as authentic as ever, as does Hakeem Olajuwon’s “Dream Shake.” Players can control these individualized post moves.

The continued tweaks in this area make the game less robotic. Players can also decelerate on their Euro step, meaning players like Gilgeous-Alexander have more control of how they draw fouls.

The movement on defense is much better, and physical defenders can use their bodies more realistically. The drive-and-kick game was also a lot of fun. Improved artificial intelligence makes how defenses and offenses react on drives to the basket feel more realistic. Shooters are able to find their spots for corner 3s, and when players like Gilgeous-Alexander or Dončić drive, multiple defenders flood the paint.

“The drive-and-kick game was a pretty big objective for the AI team this year, in this new drive-and-kick intelligence module, as we call it,” Visual Concepts game director Mike Wang said. “Trying to model that the right players get into the lane, you know, you have to collapse, or they’re going to kill you inside. Those same players usually have great court vision; they’re finding spot-up shooters and perimeter (shooters), so, just trying to model that behavior.”

The feel of the WNBA game is different from the NBA game. The timing is different around the rim, but it was fun playing with a different style and pace. The shooting from the perimeter is the same, but you’ll need to be skilled when getting shots off in the paint.

Shooting

The shooting meter with timing based on landing in a green shot window is another feature that adds realism to 2K26. “Green or Miss” returns.

There was a time in basketball video games when any shot near the rim was nearly guaranteed to be a make. Those attempts no longer automatic scores. Additionally, higher-difficulty shots are tougher to make, as the timing and defense on perimeter shooting is better. Those who master playing defense will notice improved gameplay that helps make shooting more challenging.

Closeouts are better, but gamers can counter that. Shots can be rushed, but catch-and-shoot situations have gameplay options to where shooting is more in control of the gamer and does not feel left up to chance.

“The main goal there was just to make sure that the results of what happens in the court is up to the gamer,” Wang said. “If you take good shots, and you take shots with the right players with higher attributes, and you master timing, then you’ll be effective.

“That was one of the main goals with the green window in general. Take away any kind of randomness or anything that would hold people back from being able to put up some crazy numbers if they were really good at it.”

Game modes

The biggest change to the MyTeam mode is having men and women on the same team. Shaquille O’Neal can have Angel Reese as a teammate. One popular combination is expected to be Stephen Curry and Caitlin Clark. The mode also includes WNBA legends like Lisa Leslie, so there is a good mix of players to use. It’s a fun mode.

MyPlayer adds some variety with certain layup styles and different ways to build your player. You can model your player after a current player using the new “Build by Badges” tool, which allows gamers to form a player based on specific attributes in addition to build specialization that allows players to focus on finishing, shooting, playmaking, defense or rebounding as individual areas to improve.

The City mode has been updated, as well. I also enjoyed the MyNBA Eras, which allows gamers to use teams from different NBA periods — including the early 1980s (the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era) and stops through the days of prime Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Curry — in today’s game.

Conclusion

I was so impressed with last year’s improvements that my expectations for 2K26 were tame. However, I came away enjoying this version much more than last year’s.

The realism of player movement, AI improvements and the modes creating NBA/WNBA combinations were good. The gameplay for the WNBA is realistic. It doesn’t play just like the NBA game, nor should it. If you liked 2K25, you’ll enjoy this year’s version of the game.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

NBA, WNBA, Sports Business, Culture, Gaming

2025 The Athletic Media Company

At the heart of the uproar over allegations that Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers received millions in undisclosed payments from a tree-planting startup is a National Basketball Association rule that caps the the total annual payroll for teams.

According to a report by Pablo Torre of the Athletic, bankruptcy documents show that the tree-planting startup Aspiration Partners paid Leonard $21 million — and still owes him another $7 million — after agreeing to a $28 million contract for endorsement and marketing work at the company.

The report claims there is no evidence to show that Leonard did anything for Aspiration Partners, whose initial funding came in large part from Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Torre alleges that the payment to Leonard was a way to skirt the NBA salary cap and pad his contract.

The Clippers have forcefully denied that they or Ballmer "circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct related to Aspiration."

Still, the NBA said it was launching an investigation into the matter.

Read more:NBA probing allegations that firm paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million to evade the salary cap. Clippers strongly deny claims

The salary cap is a dollar amount that limits what teams can spend on player payroll. The number is determined based on a percentage of projected income for the upcoming year. In 2024-25, the salary cap was $140.6 million.

The purpose of the cap is to ensure parity, preventing the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller markets to acquire the best players. Teams that exceed the cap must pay luxury tax penalties that grow increasingly severe. Revenues from the tax penalties are then distributed in part to smaller-market teams and in part to teams that do not exceed the salary cap.

The cap was implemented before the 1984-85 season at a mere $3.6 million. Ten years later, it was $15.9 million, and 10 years after that it had risen to $43.9 million. By the 2014-15 season it was $63.1 million.

The biggest spike came before the 2016-2017 season when it jumped to $94 million because of an influx of revenue from a new nine-year, $24 billion media rights deal with ESPN and TNT.

Salary cap rules negotiated between the NBA and the players' union are spelled out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Proven incidents of teams circumventing the cap are few, with a violation by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2000 serving as the most egregious.

The Timberwolves made a secret agreement with free agent and former No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Smith, signing him to a succession of below-market one-year deals in order to enable the team to go over the cap with a huge contract ahead of the 2001-2002 season.

The NBA voided his contract, fined the Timberwolves $3.5 million, and stripped them of five first-round draft picks — two of which were later returned. Also, owner Glen Taylor and general manager Kevin McHale were suspended.

Then-NBA commissioner David Stern told the Minnesota Star-Tribune at the time: “What was done here was a fraud of major proportions. There were no fewer than five undisclosed contracts tightly tucked away, in the hope that they would never see the light of day. … The magnitude of this offense was shocking.”

Current commissioner Adam Silver is just as adamant as Stern when it comes to enforcing salary cap rules, although the current CBA limits punishment.

According to Article 13 of the CBA, if the Clippers were found to have circumvented the cap, it would be a first offense punishable by a $4.5 million fine, the loss of one first-round draft pick, and voiding of Leonard's contract. However, the Clippers don't have a first-round pick until 2027.

Leonard, one of the Clippers stars, is extremely well compensated. He will have been paid $375,772,011 by NBA teams through the upcoming season, according to industry expert spotrac.com.

A former Aspiration finance department employee whose voice was disguised on Torre’s podcast said that when they noticed the shockingly large fee paid to Leonard, they were told that, “If I had any questions about it, essentially don’t, because it was to circumvent the salary cap, LOL. There was lots of LOL when things were shared.”

Aspiration Partners was a digital bank that promoted socially responsible spending and investments that, at one point, brought in a star-filled roster of investors that included Drake, Robert Downey Jr., and Leonardo DiCaprio. Founded in 2013, it offered investments in “conscious coalition” companies and offered carbon credits to businesses. The company was valued at  $2.3 million at one point.

But in August, the company’s co-founder, Joseph Sanberg, agreed to plead guilty to charges that he defrauded investors and lenders. Federal prosecutors accused Sanberg of causing more than $248 million in losses, calling him a “fraudster.”

Prosecutors alleged that Sanberg and another member of the company’s board, Ibrahim AlHusseini, fraudulently obtained $145 million in loans by promising shares from Sanberg’s stock in the company. AlHusseini allegedly falsified records to inflate his assets to obtain the loans, and Sanberg concealed from investigators that he was the source for revenue that was recognized by the company.

Sanberg had also recruited companies and individuals to claim they would be paying tens of thousands of dollars to have trees planted, but instead Sanberg used legal entities under his control to hide that he was making these payments, not the customers. Aspiration filed for bankruptcy in March.

The company was expected to pay more than $300 million over two decades as a sponsor for the Clippers' Intuit Dome, which opened in August 2024. But before the new arena opened, the Clippers said Aspiration was no longer a sponsor, just as the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission began looking into allegations that Aspiration had misled customers and investors.

During Aspiration’s bankruptcy proceedings, documents emerged citing KL2 Aspire as a creditor owed $7 million, one of four yearly payments of that amount agreed upon in a 2022 contract. KL2 is a limited liability company that names Leonard — whose jersey number is 2 — as its manager.

Aspiration was partially funded by a $50-million investment from Ballmer. It is not known whether Ballmer was aware of or played a role in facilitating the employment agreement between Aspiration and Leonard.

The Clippers issued a lengthy statement Thursday, attempting to explain why Leonard being paid by Aspiration was unrelated to his contract with the Clippers.

"There is nothing unusual or untoward about team sponsors doing endorsement deals with players on the same team," the statement said in part. "Neither Steve nor the Clippers organization had any oversight of Kawhi's independent endorsement agreement with Aspiration. To say otherwise is flat-out wrong."

"The Clippers take NBA compliance extremely seriously, fully respect the league's rules, and welcome its investigation related to Aspiration."

In his reporting, Torre noted that Leonard's contract with Aspiration included an unusual clause that said the company could terminate the endorsement agreement if Leonard was no longer a member of the Clippers.

Mark Cuban, part owner of the Dallas Mavericks, took to X.com to suggest that Torre's reporting was faulty.

'I’m on Team Ballmer," Cuban wrote. "As much as I wish they circumvented the salary cap, First Steve isn’t that dumb. If he did try to feed KL money, knowing what was at stake for him personally, and his team, do you think he would let the company go bankrupt ? "

Torre responded by inviting Cuban on his podcast, "Pablo Torre Finds Out."

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The NBA's quest to "create an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and our players can be proud of" continues in earnest and with a new partner.

NBC joins the effort to inject life into what has become a moribund endeavor. Under the NBA's new broadcast deal, the network will air the Feb. 15 game that will be hosted by the Clippers at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

Commissioner Adam Silver and others in the know floated a trial balloon Wednesday evening, revealing that the 2026 All-Star Game is likely to be a round-robin tournament consisting of three eight-player teams — two composed of U.S.-born players and one of players from other countries.

The NBA and the players' union presented the format to the league's competition committee on Wednesday and the response was positive, according to several media outlets.

Silver acknowledged that the convoluted format used this year "was a miss." Three eight-man all-star squads and a fourth team of rookies and sophomores played a tournament of untimed games to a target score of 40 points.

Read more:NBA probing allegations that firm paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million to evade the salary cap. Clippers strongly deny claims

Pitting U.S. All-Stars against those from other countries has long been an appealing concept to Silver. However, the league is about 70% American and 30% international, complicating a traditional one-game All-Star format. Creating two teams of eight U.S. all-stars and one team of eight from other countries would solve the numbers issue. The three teams would play one another in 12-minute-quarter round-robin games.

The impetus to devise a new All-Star Game format escalated when the final score in 2024 was a ridiculous 211-186. There was no defense for a game in which nobody played any defense.

Asked about the lack of effort in preventing the other team from scoring, then-Lakers center Anthony Davis shrugged and said, “It’s an All-Star Game."

The simple East-West format of that game was an effort to get away from the musical performances, prolonged introductions and rosters drafted by team captains that had plagued the event for years.

Silver was searching for a way to generate effort from the players and excitement from the crowd, saying before the game, "we’re not necessarily looking for players to go out there as if it’s the Finals, but we need players to play defense, we need them to care about this game. And the feeling was that maybe — and I’ll take responsibility for it; as you know, I used to run something called NBA Entertainment — that we’d gotten carried away a little bit with the entertainment aspect.”

Read more:Lakers brass shows up at EuroBasket 2025 in Poland, watch Luka Doncic's Slovenia team lose

A combined 397 points didn't cut it, especially the part about playing defense. The format tried in March was a flop, with Silver admitting, "We’re a bit back to the drawing board."

Should the competition committee green-light the new format, fans in L.A. will be able to decide in February whether the NBA has finally created an All-Star event that appeals to players enough for them to make an effort.

Television ratings might increase simply because the All-Star Game will be aired on NBC during the Milan Winter Olympics. The game will be played in the afternoon rather than the evening and is expected to be followed by NBC's daily Olympics prime-time show from Milan.

"[The Olympics] present an enormous opportunity for us to do something with an international competition instead of the traditional All-Star formats that we've used," Silver said last spring.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.