Sports

Tottenham owners exploring bid for London NBA Europe franchise

Published

42 minutes ago

August 11, 2026

The Lewis family, who own Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, are exploring a bid for the NBA Europe team in London.

It would represent a foray into other sports for the family, who have owned Spurs since Joe Lewis acquired a controlling stake in 2001. The Lewis family own 70.12 per cent of ENIC, Tottenham’s parent company, which in turn owns 87.62 per cent of the club. They are primarily represented by Vivienne Lewis, Joe Lewis’s daughter, and Nick Beucher, Vivienne’s son-in-law and co-chief executive officer of Tavistock Group.

Joe Lewis ceased to be a person of “significant control” at Tottenham in October 2022. In 2024, he pled guilty to insider trading and was fined $5million by a New York judge, before being given a presidential pardon by President Donald Trump the following year.

The Lewises are part of a consortium alongside two other families with experience in sports investment. One of these is the Checketts family, who have previously owned MLS team Real Salt Lake and the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. David Checketts, a businessman and executive from Salt Lake City, Utah previously served as general manager of the Utah Jazz and president of the New York Knicks in the NBA.

Also part of the proposed bid is the Eccles family, who, like the Checketts family, are investors in English second-tier team Burnley and Spanish club Espanyol, and also invested in venues, facilities and events for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and the upcoming 2034 games in Utah.

NBA Europe, organised by the NBA and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), is a proposed basketball league made up of European franchises that is slated to begin in 2027. It is set to be made up of 12 permanent teams, plus four sides that qualify on an annual basis.

London has been earmarked as one of the league’s 12 target cities, alongside Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Athens, Istanbul, Rome and Milan.

The Athletic reported that American technology billionaire Nikesh Arora, leader of consortium that purchased English cricket’s most lucrative franchise in the Hundred competition, has assembled a consortium of investors prepared to offer more than $1billion (£740million) for the London team.

Battersea Power Station’s undeveloped estate has also been touted as a potential arena for the franchise.

Under the Lewis family, Tottenham have regularly recorded finishes in the top half and top six of the Premier League, qualifying for the Champions League through their league position on six occasions and finishing as high as second in 2017. However, silverware has been hard to come by, with just two trophies during ENIC’s tenure: the 2007-08 League Cup and the 2024-25 Europa League.

Nick Beucher (left) alongside Vivienne Lewis and club CEO Vinai Venkatesham (Ian Kington / AFP via Getty Images)

The team finished 17th last season for the second year in a row, narrowly avoiding relegation, prompting the family to issue a rare statement.

“The problems we found were deeper than we realised and were allowed to build over the last few years,” the family said at the end of the season.

“We know that has eroded trust and we have to win that back. As owners, we take ultimate responsibility for the situation in which the club finds itself.”

Sports

European Athletics Championship: Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford on poor attendances

Published

7 minutes ago

August 11, 2026

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BBC Sport’s Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill discuss the number of empty seats at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham for the European Athletics Championships.

Available to UK users only.

Sports

Chiefs’ Rashee Rice speaks on ‘reality check’ summer that included jail time

Published

15 minutes ago

August 11, 2026

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JOSEPH, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice described his tumultuous summer, which included violating probation and serving a 30-day jail sentence, as a “reality check,” as he spoke with reporters Tuesday for the first time since last season.

Rice, 26, violated his probation in May by testing positive for a substance found in cannabis. After being arrested, he immediately served a previous 30-day jail sentence — one that resulted from pleading guilty to two third-degree felony charges related to a 2024 highway car racing incident in Dallas.

Rice was released from Dallas County Jail on June 16.

“A learning experience. A reality check,” Rice said Tuesday, when asked to reflect on his summer. “Don’t focus on the past; focus on what’s going on now.”

The timing of the jail sentence was costly. Rice missed the Chiefs’ organized team activities and mandatory minicamp, and he also wasn’t able to rehab then at the team facility after he had a clean-up procedure on his right knee in May.

Rice said he had to work to stay positive while incarcerated.

“It was tough. Mentally tough. They gave me ways to communicate with my teammates still, as well as my athletic trainer,” Rice said. “Besides the hard times in there, I kept my mind right watching shows and as much (comedian) Kevin Hart as I can to laugh. Then without that, just communicating with everybody on the outside.”

A second-round pick of the Chiefs in 2023, Rice is in the last year of his rookie contract. That makes this year critical as he looks to secure a long-term pact with the Chiefs or elsewhere.

So far, Rice has proven unreliable off the field. He served a six-game suspension at the start of the 2025 season after the 2024 incident in Dallas; Rice was required to pay more than $115,000 in restitution to the victims.

He’s also been a part of other negative headlines. In February, Rice was accused of assault by the mother of his children in a Dallas County civil lawsuit. Rice was not criminally charged in the matter, though, and the NFL did not punish him, saying there was “insufficient evidence to support a finding that he violated the personal conduct policy.”

Rice was asked Tuesday what he wanted people to know about him now.

“I’m 100 percent locked in on what’s going on now with the team,” Rice said. “Ready to go out there and dominate, and I’ve got a good group of brotherhood behind me.”

Rice’s training camp hasn’t gone perfectly. He started practices appearing to favor his right knee, while not sure whether he could trust himself to fully accelerate following surgery.

That burst has looked better in the past week, though, as he’s returned to full team drills and has quickly become one of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ favorite targets again.

Rice acknowledged Tuesday that a contract year will be part of what pushes him this season.

“It’s motivating. Honestly, just being able to be back on the field with my brothers right now is motivating,” Rice said. “That’s in the future right now. I’m just focused on what’s going on right now, and that’s getting better for the team.”

Even with all the away-from-football turmoil, Rice continues to be a popular teammate. Some Chiefs players wore “Free 4” T-shirts before he returned to play last season from his suspension. Rice described himself Tuesday as someone who looked to uplift teammates.

“I’m a positive guy. I’m a great person to feed off, as far as energy,” Rice said. “A smiling guy, mostly at all times. Unless it’s time for work, I’m serious.”

Rice said he remained hopeful about his own future as well.

“I’m doing good mentally,” he said. “I’ve got the right group of guys around me. Good agents, good coaches. Small circle — anybody else outside that’s not part of the football team — just keeping my head straight and also keeping me in a positive attitude.”