SBJ Morning Buzzcast: September 3, 2026

0:00The Monster Energy SMX World Championship is where the world's best off-road motorcycle racers battle for victory on custom-built tracks packed with speed, skill, and intensity. Join the millions of passionate fans and learn more at supermodocross.com. The NBA drops the hammer on the Los Angeles Clippers. Where else would we start today's SBJ Morning Buzzcast for Thursday, September 3rd? I'm Josh Carpenter, your host today. While it's been right about a year since Pablo Tore first uncovered the allegations around the Clippers, Kawai Leonard, and possible salary-cap circumvention, and on Wednesday, the NBA handed down some heavy, heavy penalties. The league docked the team five upcoming first round draft picks. It fined owner Steve Balmer $30 million and suspended him for a full year. Clippers' president of business operations, Jillian Zucker, was suspended a year without pay, and the team's head of basketball operations, Laurence Frank, was also suspended six months

1:03without pay. That's not to mention, Leonard himself was fined $700,000 for his part in the alleged scheme. In a statement Wednesday, the NBA said the nearly-year-long investigation, quote, found a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers' organization, a prior offender of the salary-cap circumvention rules, end quote. Meanwhile, the Clippers also released a letter Wednesday from Balmer's attorney David Kelly to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in which he described the league's investigation as quote, a witch hunt, and the subsequent penalties as a quote, gross injustice. Kelly accused Silver of not keeping his promises that the investigation would be governed by due process and fundamental fairness, as well as the burden being on the league, to prove any violations through evidence. In another twist on Wednesday, Torrey reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Dectronics concerning its alleged sponsorship deal with Leonard.

2:03This is in addition to requests for information related to the Clippers from the NBA. Dectronics acting CFO Howard Atkins made a prepared statement about the investigation on the company's earnings call Wednesday, saying the company takes the request seriously and are cooperating. The SEC's investigation into Dectronics stems from Torrey's probe into the LED video board manufacturer, which he found inked deal for Leonard to be a spokesperson for the company despite the fact that it was never publicly announced that he was hired as a sponsored athlete. So there likely will be massive fallout across the NBA around these penalties levied against the Clippers and how the Clippers respond. Now one of the biggest stories over the past two weeks in sports has been around good, good golf and that controversial driver had that they put out in concert with Calaway Golf and another big development on Wednesday. Now remember, good, good and Calaway parted ways last Thursday, the PJ tour and good, good golf parted ways last Thursday as well.

3:03And golf channel also canceled its big break series, which was done in partnership with Good, Good last Thursday on Wednesday, just yesterday. Business insider now reported that CEO Matt Kendrick, who spoke out against the backlash over the ad, had decided to step down from his position. That report from business insider also stated that Joe Flannery, who had joined Good, Good as its president, only a few days before the scandal broke out, had also stepped down from his role. An internal memo from Good, Good, CEO Alex Petula read in part yesterday, this is a difficult day for the entire Good, Good family. Matt helped build something extraordinary that exceeded all expectations and continues to bring countless new fans to the sport, but began as a small group of friends playing golf is now a growing global community. So this has been one of the more swift fallouts I can remember surrounding a situation like this. You might remember just two weeks ago we reported I did a story on Good, Good, Golf in which Kendrick told me that Good, Good wanted to become, quote, the biggest golf company in

4:09the world. And now two weeks later Kendrick is out as the CEO of Good, Good, Golf. Let's shift over to the ice. The NHL season gets underway later this month. I can't wait to see my hurricanes raised their Stanley Cup banner at Lenovo Center in late September. And speaking of the hurricanes, my colleague Alex Silverman reported yesterday that Amazon's Prime Video platform will be the local end market streaming home for the six NHL teams that have opted into the league's new centralized production operation, beginning this season. Those teams include the hurricanes, the blue jackets, the blues, the ducks, the stars, and the wild. While the subscription models vary by club, the addition of those teams, in addition to the crack and solidifies Amazon's position as a major player in local sports media, amid the ongoing disruption of that RSN business. The four teams whose games were previously carried by Main Street sports now defunct the FANDUAL sports network, the Blue Jackets, Blues, Hurricanes, and Wild, will continue

5:10to have linear television distribution in their local markets through DTC agreements, which are still being negotiated with support from the NHL. As a result of that, fans accustomed to watching games through traditional pay TV providers will still be able to do so, some also intend to offer select games locally via over the air stations. The streaming products for the Blue Jackets, Blues, Hurricanes, and Wild on Prime Video, will also be offered as standalone subscriptions, priced at $19.99 per month, or $99.99 for the season. Fans of those teams will not be required to be Amazon Prime members to purchase the streaming packages. The ducks and stars whose games had previously streamed on Victory Plus are taking a different approach that more closely aligns with a free streaming first model fans had become accustomed to over the past two seasons. Prime Video will serve as the primary in market distribution platform for both clubs, with the ducks and stars making a limited number of games available over the air in their local

6:10markets. Prime Video will be the only platform carrying every locally distributed game for both teams. Unlike the subscription option for the four former FANDUAL clubs, ducks and stars games will be available at no additional cost to Amazon Prime subscribers. Let's go back to golf real quick and the WTGL, the new women's league under the Tomorrow Sports umbrella. We all know about the TGL in its first two seasons, the men's league under tomorrow's sports, and now tomorrow is launching its women's league WTGL, and that league on Wednesday landed its first media partners. That's right, the WTGL has signed its first media deal, agreeing to terms that will see matches air on ABC and ESPN networks, as well as the script sports owned Ion, though exact terms weren't revealed, the sides said they had a multi-year deal. The schedule for the women's league hasn't been announced, but the 15 match days are expected to be spread out approximately 50-50 over the course of the season, across both Ion and ESPN's networks.

7:11As it has with TGL, tomorrow's sports and lead producer Jeff Newbarth will handle production around the WTGL, a talent for the broadcast is still being ironed out. Viewers likely will see some differences from the ESPN town that has been hosting TGL shows over that league's first two seasons, though. Quickly on Ion, it's in nearly 130 million homes in the US and has been a major player in women's sports, air and coverage of the NWSL, WNBA, and PWHL. While NWSL and WNBA seasons run mostly during the summer months, WTGL, which will play in November and December, gives Ion a piece of the winter. Ion also will give WTGL much need of consistency across the season. Whereas TGL matches have bounced around on different networks, on different nights throughout its first two seasons, WTGL matches on Ion will all air on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. One other story to watch coming out of this deal for the WTGL is what happens for the rights for the men's TGL. Remember, tomorrow's sports side an agreement with the ESPN for the first two seasons of TGL,

8:15and everything we've been hearing in recent months is that the league would end up back on ESPN. With WTGL finding a home on ESPN, don't be surprised to see the men's league renew with the network in the coming weeks or months. I spoke about the WTGL on this week's SBJ Sports Media podcast alongside my colleague Austin Karp. We also discussed the latest throughout Tony Romo and took a look back at week zero in college football. And on the topic of college football, CBS analyst Charles Davis, who I think is one of the smartest in the business, joined Austin for a great interview. Check out that interview and check out the SBJ Sports Media podcast wherever you get your podcast. So that'll put a wrap on today's SBJ Morning Buzzcast for September 3rd, a very busy Thursday. I'm Josh Karpender signing off. Hope you all have a great Labor Day holiday and we'll talk to you again soon. The Monster Energy SMX World Championship is where the world's best off-road motorcycle

9:19riders come to race. The sport's biggest stars, including Jet and Hunter Lawrence, Hayden Deegan, Joe Shimoda and more, battle for victory on custom-built tracks packed with speed, skill and intensity. The SMX World Championship delivers high-flying action, intense competition, electric crowds in an unforgettable live-motor sports experience. Find millions of passionate fans and learn more at supermodocross.com