October 18, 2026

An illustration of basketball players under the hoop, with a player in a red jersey contesting for a rebound against several players in blue jerseys amidst a glowing, stippled background implying a packed stadium.

Ryan Johnson

Editor’s note

Everybody get up, it’s time to slam now. The NBA regular season tips off this week, so to get you ready for another year of high-flying jams and egregious flops, we’re here with a special edition all about the sport Zac Efron played unconvincingly in High School Musical. We’ll get into its explosive growth, the WNBA’s historic pay raises, the latest in b-ball fashion, and much more. Lace up your Nike Kobe 6 Protros, because it’s time for Basketball Brew.

pickup game

Basketball is reaching new heights

Victor Wembanyama of France slam dunking in a basketball hoop during the second round of the 2027 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers

Victor Wembanyama during the 2027 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers. Nicholas Muller/Getty Images

Basketball is on a bit of a fast break right now. New territory is being explored, new teams are being added, and new leagues are being created. Everything in the sport seems to be growing. Except for the players’ shorts. Those are smaller again.

Around the world

The American-born sport has especially taken off overseas. According to a Nielsen Sports survey conducted in 18 countries on behalf of FIBA, the world’s basketball governing body:

Basketball is the world’s second-favorite sport, behind only soccer.
Between 2019 and 2023, interest in the game among those surveyed grew from 68% to 74%.

When NBA teams took the court on last season’s opening night, the games featured 135 international players from 43 countries (and another planet, if there’s any truth to Victor Wembanyama’s “Alien” nickname). It’s no wonder the NBA has been trying to create a whole league overseas called NBA Europe, which, after some delay, is expected to launch in 2028, according to The Guardian.

Beyond the NBA

While the NBA is looking for growth overseas (and in Seattle and Vegas), there’s plenty more growth happening for the sport stateside outside the league.

The WNBA is growing, having just posted its best regular-season viewership since 2000, according to Sports Business Journal. And by 2030, the league said it will have 18 teams—six more than it had in 2024.

March Madness is expanding, too. Next year, college basketball plans to push the boundaries of printable brackets even further by cramming additional matchups into its men’s and women’s postseason tournaments, expanding the field from 68 to 76 teams. Pretty soon, we won’t need a regular season at all.

In another league: Upstart basketball leagues have been popping up in recent years, too. Rapper/actor Ice Cube’s three-on-three basketball league, BIG3, launched in 2017, and has reportedly drawn enough of an audience to be valued at around $290 million. And last month, Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s league, raised funds at a $650 million valuation—almost double what it was a year ago.—BC

tipoff

You can soon own stock in the Knicks

Crowd of Knicks fans celebrating in the streets at night

Selcuk Acar/Getty Images

The 2026 NBA champions retained their starting lineup and will let you do the trading instead. Shares of the ~~only basketball team in the world~~ New York Knicks are expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange later this month under the ticker MSGK.

Why now? You’re getting the opportunity to call yourself a part-owner because the board of Madison Square Garden Sports recently decided to spin off its New York Knicks business from its New York Rangers business, which will trade separately as MSGR.

The move comes amid a blowout year for MSG’s soon-to-be-divided stock:

The holding company’s market cap is nearing $10 billion, up more than 80% from the same time last year.
The Knicks account for much of that value. In private market valuations for MSG’s teams—which are higher than public market counterparts—the Knicks are worth an estimated $11.75 billion, per JPMorgan, while the Rangers are worth an estimated $4.15 billion, per Sportico.

MSG’s move isn’t without controversy: One of the board members for the newly formed MSG Knickerbockers Corp., which will include the team, will be Isiah Thomas, a former Knicks head coach who was accused of sexual harassment. This has also been a year of heightened scrutiny for Knicks owner James Dolan, whose use of facial recognition technology at Madison Square Garden—as recently reported by Wired—drew protests from privacy advocates.—ML

gold in them there hills

The Nobel winner behind WNBA’s historic pay raise

SWEDEN-NOBEL-AWARD Laureate for economics US' Claudia Goldin is congratulated by the audience as she receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics

Claudia Goldin receiving her Nobel Prize in 2023. Christine Olsson/Getty Images

Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin says she doesn’t watch basketball—but even if she might think a slam dunk is a dipping sauce, she knows a wage gap when she sees one. Goldin used her expertise in gender pay disparities to advise the WNBA players union on salary negotiations last year, which helped the players secure an unprecedented 400% pay bump.

Goldin helped crunch the numbers behind WNBA players’ claim that their pay didn’t reflect the league’s rising popularity, which was turbocharged by superstars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. She dug into the league’s TV ratings to argue that the WNBA’s average yearly paycheck of $127k in 2024—compared with the NBA’s $10 million average—constituted an “embarrassing” wage gap:

Goldin calculated that the WNBA attracted ~30% as many monetizable broadcast viewers per player as the NBA, when accounting for the number of games and their length.
She argued that since there were similar disparities in per-player game attendance, equitable WNBA salaries would be a third to a quarter of NBA paychecks on average.

Soon after, the league and the union signed a contract bumping players’ estimated average annual salary to $583,000, expected to rise to more than $1 million by 2032.

But what about profit? Goldin rejected the idea that the pay gap reflects the WNBA’s unprofitability, noting that the league’s costly expansion to new cities shows that investors see it as lucrative.

Other economists seconded Goldin’s findings and said that breaking down the exact revenue the NBA and WNBA contribute to their joint owners might show the WNBA isn’t losing money. They also pointed out that the NBA spends 50% of its revenue on player salaries, while WNBA paychecks represent a much smaller fraction.

Looking ahead…the WNBA is among the fastest-growing sports leagues in the US as viewership grew 17% last season, though some skeptics have questioned whether it can maintain this momentum.—SK

history lesson

Basketball players have always been fashionable

LeBron James wearing Thom Browne suit walking through tunnel with photographers surrounding him

LeBron James in a Thom Browne suit. Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

Tunnel ’fits in the NBA have evolved far from the strict business casual dress codes of yesteryear, and the WNBA has cooled it on the flowy dresses for promo pics. Now, players in both leagues have embraced that fashion (including streetwear and luxury) can be part of what draws fans to the game.

While the NBA never confirmed it, NBA legend Allen Iverson’s fashion is rumored to have prompted the league to institute a dress code in 2005 that some players and fans criticized as targeting Black players by banning a bevy of clothing, including durags, chains, and baggy clothes. But when Adam Silver took over as NBA commissioner in 2014, the rules loosened, allowing players to be more fashion-forward:

During the 2018 NBA playoffs, LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates donned a number of custom Thom Browne suits.
Players were also allowed to wear sneakers that didn’t match their team colors for the first time during the 2018–2019 season.

Meanwhile, the WNBA has come a long way from a jeans ban. During the 2024 draft, No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark became the first basketball player to be dressed by Prada for draft night. And the league named Coach its “official handbag partner.”

Teams now see fashion as a layup…as evidenced by them often posting player tunnel ’fits on their official social media channels.—MM

news you can use

Basketball stars with social media side hustles

Stud Budz Natisha Hiedeman and Courtney Williams of the Minnesota Lynx posing against pink wall

The “StudBudz” Natisha Hiedeman and Courtney Williams are WNBA Minnesota Lynx players. Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Current or retired, superstar or role player, numerous NBA and WNBA players have popular podcasts or Twitch streams, sometimes sharing them with relatives, historians, and other experts. Here are a few worth checking out, even if you don’t care about alley-oops and transition defense:

The StudBudz Twitch streamers (Courtney Williams + Natisha Hiedeman)
The Draymond Green Show (Draymond Green)
Club 520 (Jeff Teague, DJ Wells, Bishop “B Hen” Henn)
All the Smoke (Matt Barnes + Stephen Jackson)
Bird’s Eye View (Sue Bird)
Straight to Cam (Cameron Brink + Sydel Curry-Lee)
Roommates Show (Jalen Brunson + Josh Hart)

Sometimes it’s more than a little side cash: The Hollywood Reporter said that a podcast hosted by someone of Green’s stature can earn “seven figures”...which is probably just pocket change when you’re getting $27.7 million this season. But Barnes, who was more of a role player during his career, said he expects to make more from podcasting than from the NBA.—DL

wait, what?

If you have $7k, you can hire Red Panda

Red Panda performing with flying bowls stacked on head during halftime of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game

Chris Swann/Getty Images

Some of the most entertaining things on the court happen during halftime, and one of the most legendary halftime entertainers in the biz is Red Panda.

The ~~artist~~ ~~acrobat~~ genius behind the act, Rong Niu, climbs atop an eight-foot-tall custom unicycle and kicks bowls from her leg onto the stack of bowls on her head. Niu has been performing at NBA, WNBA, and college basketball games since her first halftime show during an LA Clippers game in 1993.

The numbers: Red Panda’s booking fee is reportedly $6,765, which includes her travel. She also requires a hotel room rated four stars or higher—and if she has to fly, the booker pays for her checked bag (the unicycle is too big for the overhead bins).—MM

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ICYMI, use your Sunday morning to get caught up on some of our most-clicked recent recs:

Can you spot an AI-generated image?
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A cute chunky cardigan perfect for whatever fall activities you have planned this weekend.**

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Written by Brendan Cosgrove, Molly Liebergall, Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Dave Lozo, and Adam Epstein

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