More about it: https://mrf.lu/2TlqH

I don't understand why the EuroLeague allows this circus to unfold every summer. This isn't a coaches' league or even a players' league—it's a managers' league.

Mario Hezonja signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid. There are no EuroLeague buyout clauses in that deal; the only way out is through the NBA. Yet his new agent, Misko Raznatović—who has built a reputation for offering his players to other clubs while they're still under contract—is doing everything possible to send him to his favorite project, Dubai BC.

The moment we learned that Hezonja had paid the NBA buyout but wasn't signed by an NBA team, the picture became much clearer. The only realistic way for him to leave Real Madrid is to secure a guaranteed NBA contract and then be waived, allowing him to sign with Dubai. So far, Raznatović hasn't managed to make that happen.

As for Hezonja himself, he seems to enjoy becoming the center of attention every summer. This offseason, with the market exploding and players signing record-breaking, long-term contracts, he apparently couldn't accept being left out of the spotlight.

And he isn't the only one.

Over the past few years, the Greek from Texas- Thomas Walkup,has repeatedly spoken about how much he loves Greece, wants to spend the rest of his life here, and hopes to finish his career with Olympiacos. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, he gave an interview to Eurohoops. This time, when asked about his future, he spoke about wanting to end his career somewhere he feels respected and appreciated. The very next day, reports emerged claiming that Dubai was offering Walkup €3 million per year.

Before going any further, it's important to state some facts. First, Walkup's contract includes a +1 option that belongs exclusively to Olympiacos. He cannot simply decide not to "opt in"—that decision is entirely in Olympiacos' hands. Following the interview, Olympiacos exercised the option, keeping him on a salary of roughly €1.1 million.

Second, Olympiacos signed two additional point guards this summer on significantly larger contracts. CMM is reportedly earning around €2.2–2.5 million annually, while Montero is expected to make approximately €2.8–3 million.Third, Walkup's agent has close ties to Eurohoops.

Finally, Olympiacos has reportedly set a €3 million buyout for a player earning around €1.1 million per year, while Dubai is only willing to offer around €600,000.

When you put all of these pieces together, it becomes difficult not to question who is really driving the market. Clubs sign long-term contracts expecting them to be respected, yet every summer agents use media leaks, interviews, and transfer rumors to create pressure. If contracts only matter until a richer club appears, then what is the point of signing them in the first place?

But this isn't really only about legality. Olympiacos has every right to keep Walkup under the terms of his contract. The +1 option belongs to the club, and they exercised it. End of discussion.

The real question is an ethical one.

How can you bring in two players who play the same position as Walkup—just weeks after winning the EuroLeague—and pay each of them at least twice as much? How can you sit down with a player who has given everything to the club, repeatedly declared his love for Greece and Olympiacos, and not offer him an extension that reflects the reality of today's market?

At the same time, if you've already invested heavily in two new point guards and don't intend to reward the player who helped you reach the top, why not let him leave? Why demand a reported €3 million buyout for a player earning around €1.1 million?

In both case,the players' agents decided to offer the players to other contracta while none of the players had a Euroleague out clause. This shouldn't be permitted and should be punished. It undermines the financial and competitive stability of the entire league!

https://basketnews.com/news-252432-zalgiris-receive-major-funding-boost-ahead-of-2026-27-season.html?utm_campaign=mrf-bn-twitter-BasketNews_com&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&mrfcid=202607226a60c8ed3d97176cafe89d6c

Clutch stats aren't published officially for EuroLeague, so this was calculated from raw data — final 3 minutes of Q4 and overtime, score within 5, minimum 20 field goal attempts across the season.

Francisco leads in raw scoring (54 points, 15 games). Montero leads in everything that matters — best +/- on the list, 69.2% True Shooting, consistent across 14 games. The gap between volume and actual impact is the most interesting part.

Full breakdown: https://thebuzzerlab.com/blog/the-clutch-leaders-of-euroleague-2025-26

Happy to share numbers for anyone not in the top 10.

Box Score: https://www.proballers.com/basketball/game/504009/virtus-segafredo-bologna-benetton-treviso-1993-05-08

Scudetto-clinching match by Virtus Bologna, sweeping Treviso 3-0, as well as sweeping the entire playoffs 7-0

There is another Danilovic highlight video from this third leg but it's shorter and doesn't include a couple clips from the longer video linked in the post, notably his latigo move at the end.

https://x.com/TelesportRS/status/2079598194233581628?s=20

Why this game exists

Two things I've loved my whole life: basketball and management games. A year ago, purely for passion, I built a small single-player basketball manager, and about a thousand people ended up playing it. This year I rebuilt it from scratch as the game I always wanted to play myself: multiplayer, live, persistent. It's called TopGM Online, it's free, it runs in the browser, and since this community is full of people who love the same kind of basketball I do, I wanted to present it here properly.

A full pyramid, one living world

The world is one big pyramid, from the Premier League at the top down to the bottom flights, and every league plays from day one. You take over a club starting from the League 5 and its fate is entirely yours: roster, tactics, finances, youth, everything. Two league games a week, playoffs, playouts, promotion and relegation every season. Nothing is simulated "in the background for flavor": every team in every league actually plays its games, same nights, same world.

You coach the matches. Live.

This is the part I'm most proud of. Matches are not a dice roll with a report at the end. They are live 2D games (Wednesday 21:00 and Sunday 11:00 CET, about 25 minutes) where you watch your players run the floor in retro pixel art and you coach in real time: call Pick & Roll or Isolation, switch to a 2-3 zone, burn a timeout when the run gets ugly, sub out your center when he picks up his fourth foul. Fatigue is real, players tire and need the bench. Fouls are real, five and you're out. Injuries are real. Height is real too: a 220cm center owns the glass in a way a 202cm one never will, and a small guard will get his shot altered inside. If you can't make tip-off, every match is fully replayable, identical to how it was played.

The Playground: scouting with your eyes

There is a street court where young prospects play pickup games 24 hours a day. No ratings. No box score. No stats page. You want to know which kid is good? Watch him play. The longer you watch, the more your club learns. Then, every night at 20:00 CET, a sealed-bid draft closes: no minimum bid, no maximum, highest envelope takes the kid home to their academy. Every so often, a class hides a once-in-a-generation talent, and nothing on the page tells you which one he is. The managers who watched, know. Kids nobody bids on disappear forever.

Homegrown stars are possible

Prospects in your academy actually grow: taller, heavier, better, season after season. A 15-year-old is drafted on projection, like real scouting. Train the right kid with the right talent and he can become the best player in the world. The current superstars will age, decline and retire: the next generation comes from somebody's academy. Maybe yours.

Money that means something

TV money grows with your division, but the real income is winning: every victory pays. Wages grow as your players improve. Sell high, buy smart, or don't: clubs that end the week in the red are forced to sell their best player, publicly, and the league feed will let everyone know. Buying a star from a higher division costs an ambition premium, because a top flight starter does not drop to the fourth division at list price. Every credit matters.

The other managers are people

League feed with real trash talk. Private messages. Direct transfer negotiations between humans. Sealed-bid duels every night at the draft. When you finally beat someone, there's a person on the other side who knows it.

The small things

Every player in the world is one of a kind: procedural pixel-art faces with a world-wide registry, so no two players are ever twins. Nineteen nationalities with real name pools. A living news feed in every league. And the whole thing works on your phone.

What it costs: nothing

Free to play, no download, no ads. It will never be pay-to-win: there will be in future one optional cosmetic pass (crest, jersey, court colors) and that's it, forever. This is a labor of love, and what it needs is not money, it's managers: people who fill these leagues with rivalries.

The season is young and most clubs are still up for grabs: topgm.app. The homepage has a live match running in your browser right now, that's the actual engine, judge it yourself.

I'll be in the comments. Ask me anything, including the hard questions.

Box Score: https://www.proballers.com/basketball/game/504092/ea7-emporio-armani-milan-fortitudo-bologna-1996-05-21

As you can see, there are multiple assists in the video by Bodiroga but assist counting was a totally different animal in 1996 so the entire Olimpia team are credited with only 3 assists, all by Nando Gentile. Fortitudo are also credited with only 3 assists but otherwise the box score is accurate as it is sourced by the official Lega Basket website itself.

Bodiroga also scored this winner in the next match, putting Olimpia up 2-1 in the series, before winning the third in a row and wrapping up Olimpia's first scudetto in 7 years with a 3-1 finals victory.

https://x.com/PartizanBC/status/2079522041842077923

https://www.sanpabloburgos.com/es/noticia/ver/52572-vlatko-cancar-retorna-al-coliseum.html