Report: The reason LeBron James met with Nikola Jokić's agent
Fans wondered if James was trying to recruit Jokic to the Los Angeles Lakers. After all, the Lakers are rumored to be planning on trying to acquire Jokic within the next couple of years and pair him with Luka Doncic. Some felt that perhaps James was planning to leave the Lakers next summer and sign with Jokic's Denver Nuggets.
But Ben Horney, Daniel Roberts and Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports gave a different explanation. According to them, the meeting had to do with a new basketball league Carter wants to start.
"The mysterious boat meeting last week in France between LeBron James, his business partner Maverick Carter, and Nikola Jokić's European agent was about the planned international basketball league being spearheaded by Carter, multiple sources tell Front Office Sports.
"The photo, posted to Instagram over the weekend by Jokić's European agent Miško Ražnatović, caused speculation about whether the trio was talking about James joining the Nuggets or Jokić joining the Lakers.
"Sources familiar with the situation tell FOS it was not about the Nuggets or Lakers."
ESPN reported in January that Carter intends to form an international basketball league that would rival the NBA. It would reportedly consist of six men's teams and six women's teams.
The NBA has been the world's preeminent pro basketball league going back to its founding in the late 1940s. Over the decades, a few rival leagues had tried to compete with it, but they all failed.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Report: The reason LeBron James met with Nikola Jokić's agent
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Palantir Reports Sales Up 48%, Cites ‘Astonishing' AI Impact
(Bloomberg) -- Palantir Technologies Inc. reported a 48% increase in revenue for the second quarter to more than $1 billion, citing the 'astonishing impact' of artificial intelligence technology on its business. PATH Train Service Resumes After Fire at Jersey City Station Mayor Asked to Explain $1.4 Billion of Wasted Johannesburg Funds Chicago Curbs Hiring, Travel to Tackle $1 Billion Budget Hole Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind The data software company also raised its revenue outlook for the full year to a range of $4.14 billion to $4.15 billion, exceeding analysts' prior expectation of $3.91 billion. Palantir shares rose about 5% in premarket trading on Tuesday, putting stock on track to hit an all-time high when New York markets open. Denver-based Palantir has seen its stock price surge more than 500% over the past year — buoyed by high expectations from investors, growth in demand for AI tools, and a deep reach into both the private and public sectors. The company's $1 billion revenue in the period ended June 30 exceeded analysts' average estimate of $939 million. Growth was particularly strong in the US, where sales jumped 68% to $733 million, the company said Monday in a statement. Palantir said adjusted earnings per share for the quarter were 16 cents, exceeding analyst expectations of 14 cents. In a letter to shareholders, Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp lingered on the company's at-times tenuous relationship with Wall Street. 'The skeptics are admittedly fewer now, having been defanged and bent into a kind of submission,' he wrote. He also said that AI breakthroughs had helped fuel Palantir's growth, pointing to the development of large language models and the chips required to power them. Going forward, Karp said that Palantir planned to be the 'dominant software company of the future,' and added, 'the market is now waking up to this reality.' The company's US government revenue climbed 53% in the quarter to hit $426 million. Meanwhile, its revenue from commercial contracts in the US climbed even quicker, rising 93% for the year to hit $306 million. The 'outperformance' in Palantir's US commercial business is a key indicator of robust demand, particularly for the company's AI products, Jordan Berger, an analyst at Third Bridge, said in a note. 'We continue to hear from experts that Palantir maintains unique market positioning for monetizing AI technology amid a noisy, crowded, and hype-laden market, and the company's Q2 2025 performance further validates that sentiment,' Berger said. Palantir has long played a role as a key US government contractor, working with both the US military, those of allied countries like Ukraine, and partnering with new defense tech startups. The company solidified its relationship with the Pentagon during the quarter, striking new deals with the US Space Force and US Army, executives said during a conference call after the results. Palantir also consolidated 15 prime contracts and 60 related contracts with the Army into one single deal — a 10-year, $10 billion arrangement. While the agreement was designed to cut costs for the government and didn't boost the company's bottom line, it could provide a template for future federal deals, analysts said. In his letter to shareholders, Karp emphasized Palantir's commitment to defense tech, writing that the US is 'the most consequential country in the West,' and adding, 'it must be protected.' Karp ended the call with a message to retail investors, thanking them for their support and urging them to be kinder to analysts who doubted Palantir. 'Stop talking to all the haters. They're suffering,' he said. (Updates with premarket shares in the third paragraph.) AI Flight Pricing Can Push Travelers to the Limit of Their Ability to Pay Russia's Secret War and the Plot to Kill a German CEO Government Steps Up Campaign Against Business School Diversity What Happens to AI Startups When Their Founders Jump Ship for Big Tech How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Strasbourg learn potential Europa Conference League opponents
RC Strasbourg Alsace will compete in the UEFA Europa Conference League this season, following a seventh-place finish in Ligue 1 last time around. Les Alsaciens dropped into the Europa Conference League after a last-gasp loss to Le Havre AC on the final day of the season. In order to qualify for the League Phase, Strasbourg must progress through a qualifier. The Ligue 1 side learned their two potential opponents on Monday. They will face either Bröndby or Vikingur Reykjavik. The two Nordic sides will face each other in a two-legged tie, the winner of which will be known on 14th August. The first leg of Strasbourg's play-off will take place at home, at the Meinau, on 21st August, with the return leg one week later on 28th August. Before that, Liam Rosenior's side will get their Ligue 1 campaign up and running with a derby against FC Metz on Sunday 17th. GFFN | Luke Entwistle
New York Times
35 minutes ago
- New York Times
How to watch Fever at Sparks: Indiana goes for sixth straight win without Caitlin Clark
The Indiana Fever's up-and-down 2025 campaign is back up again. It's almost a dizzy bat race at this point. Caitlin Clark is still on the sidelines, but her teammates are balling out, having won five straight games and back-to-back on the road. The Fever hit southern California as the hottest team in the WNBA, but Tuesday's opponents are simmering on their heels. The Los Angeles Sparks are 7-3 in their last 10, buoyed by Cameron Brink's return and a fast-paced scoring balance. Advertisement Kelsey Mitchell is fearless as Indiana's new lead option. She's going to have a few clunkers (3-for-16 Sunday in Seattle, 8-of-24 last month against Las Vegas). She's also going to turn the lights out (at least three 3s in four of her previous six games, and a 35-point gem at Chicago on July 27). The current road trip has been a good one for Indy's big-name frontcourt. Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard both double-doubled in Friday's win at Dallas. Boston followed up with 16 points, 12 rebounds and three steals up in Seattle, while Howard dropped a game-high 21 points on just 12 shots. On the outside, Mitchell's off afternoon was countered by Sophie Cunningham's four treys. The hosts play with the No. 2 pace in the league, spearheaded by the floor-running Kelsey Plum at point. After an inefficient start to her Sparks stint, Plum has settled into a double-time groove of late. She's averaging 20.6 points. 7.1 assists and 1.5 steals across her last eight games, with fantastic 49.5/42.9/95.2 shooting splits. Los Angeles is 6-7 overall in clutch spots, defined by the league as the last five minutes of games when the score is within five points. But it is 6-2 in its last eight clutch finishes. That includes a 'Game of the Year' candidate in Friday's double-overtime Storm clash. Dearica Hamby delivered the winning layup, an aggressive Rickea Jackson notched 27 points and Brink had five stocks (steals + blocks) in 12 minutes (!). Indiana will also have to account for Azurá Stevens, who is in the middle of a career breakthrough in her eighth pro season. Stevens is 40.5 percent behind the arc this year, and she presents all kinds of mismatches at 6-foot-6. Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald and Kelsey Mitchell: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
