Basketball

2/20/2025 |  Top 20 NBA Media Talent Targets Left For Amazon, NBC, and the Rest (Front Office Sports) There’s been a gold rush on NBA TV talent as NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video build their broadcast teams for the 2025–2026 season. But plenty of talented people remain available—now or in the near future—as NBC, Amazon’s Prime Video, and incumbent ESPN fight it out for the best hoops announcers, analysts, and reporters.

2/19/2025 |  NBA TV Ratings Are Down 5%. NBC May Reverse That Trend Next Year (Front Office Sports) The NBA’s TV ratings have been a central topic of conversation all season long as the league has faced declining viewership numbers.
But after a slow first few months of the 2024–2025 season with double-digit percentage declines, the league has partially recovered. Entering the second half of the season, the NBA is averaging 1.76 million viewers across ESPN and TNT platforms, a 5% year-over-year decline, according to Nielsen.

2/18/2025 |  Spurs star Victor Wembanyama brings books to games; that’s not all that makes him different (Associated Press (AP)) Let’s start with this: He brought a book to the All-Star Game.
As if the NBA needed more proof that San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is different, the latest example came Sunday in a locker-room video posted by the league. Wembanyama was getting settled in before the games and Denver’s Nikola Jokic was puzzled by what the Spurs star had with him.
“You really brought a book?” Jokic asked.
“I read before every game,” Wembanyama said.

2/18/2025 |  LeBron James trolls Doug Gottlieb amid basketball personality's abysmal first season at Wisconsin-Green Bay (CBS Sports) The ongoing beef between LeBron James and Wisconsin-Green Bay men's basketball coach Doug Gottlieb took a new turn Monday on X (formerly Twitter) when the Los Angeles Lakers star trolled the first-year coach for his team's abysmal record. 
The Phoenix finally snapped a 21-game losing streak with a 79-68 win against Wright State on Sunday, but that didn't stop James from mocking Gottlieb's coaching acumen. 

2/18/2025 |  College basketball rankings: Florida moves up to No. 2, Alabama drops after loss to No. 1 Auburn (CBS Sports) Auburn retained its spot at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll Monday for a sixth consecutive week after a road win Saturday over No. 2 Alabama. The Tigers, whose unanimous standing at No. 1 ended last week after a three-poll stint, earned all but one first-place vote to near unanimous status once again, with Florida earning the final first-place vote.