DUBAI: The 2025–26 NBA season tipped off last night with international stars once again taking center stage, highlighting the league’s growing global reach and balance of power.

In Oklahoma City, Canadian MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the defending champions to a dramatic 125-124 double-overtime win over the Houston Rockets on ring night, scoring 35 points and delivering the decisive free throws.

Out west, Slovenian guard Luka Doncic opened his season in spectacular form for the Los Angeles Lakers, recording 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in a narrow loss to Golden State, joining Michael Jordan as the only guards in NBA history to open a season with a 40-10-5 stat line.

Their performances captured what NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum called a “new era” for the league, one defined by the strength and reach of its international players.

“This marks a new era for our league, and I think it’s one that’s going to transform how fans everywhere watch and experience the NBA through our new media partnerships, our most global partnerships to date,” Tatum said.

“While we continue to build on the incredible growth of the game, with seven different champions in the last seven seasons, the league’s historic age of competitiveness gives fans hope that this once again could be their team’s year.”

Record number of international players

Ahead of opening night, Tatum confirmed that the league had reached a historic milestone.

“There is a record 135 international players on opening-night rosters that beats the previous record by 10,” he said.

“We have a record number of European players, including a record 19 French players, a record number of players from the UK, and also a record-tying number of players from Australia.

“As you all know, four international players have combined to win the last seven MVP awards.”

That mix of experience and emerging talent has helped shape one of the most competitive landscapes in years.

“There is no clear favorite to win the championship, and that’s why it gives more fans some hope,” Tatum said.

“The skill level in this league is unprecedented right now. There’s a mix of these all-time greats who are still playing at the highest level. There are these perennial MVP candidates who like the Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.”

Expanding global footprint

Tatum also pointed to the NBA’s continued international expansion, with preseason and regular-season games held across several continents.

“I had the opportunity to attend our preseason games in Abu Dhabi and Macau. We also played NBA games for the first time ever in Melbourne, Australia,” he said.

“We also had preseason games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Vancouver, Canada. And I can tell you that the enthusiasm around those games was truly remarkable.”

Beyond events, the league is also deepening its structural ties internationally.

“Ninety-five percent of the world’s population is outside the United States,” he added.

“And in many of those countries, basketball is either the No.1 or No. 2 sport. Even with everything we’re doing to engage hundreds of millions of passionate NBA fans around the world, we think we’re just scratching the surface of how popular this game and this league can be globally.”

A global game for a global audience

From Antetokounmpo in Greece to Jokic in Serbia and Embiid in Cameroon, international players continue to define the NBA’s identity. Rising talents such as Victor Wembanyama, the fastest player ever to reach 1 billion social media views, are expanding that reach even further.

“These players not only foster a unique connection between the NBA and the fans in their respective countries,” Tatum said.

“They’re global superstars who resonate in the US and around the world.”

As the 2025–26 season gets underway, the NBA’s opening night once again confirmed that basketball’s brightest stars now shine from every corner of the globe.

A former top Mossad official has told the BBC how technology and innovation played a key role for Israel in its 12-day war with Iran.

In an interview with BBC Persian’s special correspondent Kasra Naji, the former deputy chief of the Israeli intelligence agency, Rami Igra, said that innovation, technology, and “very sophisticated guiding systems” played an important role in the killings of top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In its initial attack on 13 June, Israel killed top Iranian military figures including the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, the IRGC Chief of Staff and the head of IRGC missile and aerospace divisions, as well as a number of nuclear scientists.

Iran attributes this to Mossad operatives working inside the country.

Igra said he was not impressed by the killings: “It doesn’t change the fact that behind that top brass, there’s a whole army and people are expendable at the end of the day”.

Lauren Nicholls played elite level netball for 10 years then had two children, before becoming coach of Super League champions Loughborough Lightning. She says the conversations current players have about fertility are different to the ones she had with her teammates.

“I know a few of the slightly older players – they’ve frozen eggs and made those decisions for their family for a later date,” she says. “Because they’re worried about their career.”

Juggling being an elite athlete and starting a family has always been a tricky challenge. For women, their years of peak fertility overlap with the time they hit their physical peak.

Male athletes are also not immune to fertility issues, external. Burning more energy than you have coming in may affect testosterone levels, cause sperm abnormalities and even erectile dysfunction.

But for Dr Emma Pullen, a sports exercise researcher at Loughborough, the lack of definitive answers on the impact of elite sport is emblematic of how poorly female athletes have been researched, from fertility to injury risk.

She said research was “playing catch up” with the amount of attention on male sport.

“We’re seeing the repercussions of that with growing professionalisation of women’s sports and more female athletes than ever before,” Dr Pullen adds.

Overall, Prof Nargund argues female athletes are likely to face more fertility challenges than other women.

“There seems to be a fertility problem because of [elite sport’s] potential effect on ovulation, including potentially a higher risk of miscarriage,” she says.

But a definitive answer on exactly how much elite-level exercise is too much is not clear. And that’s enough for Dame Laura, for now.

“The conversation in itself I feel is really important because I want people to start talking,” Laura says. “Honestly, I would love it if it was a lot more open.”

The relationship between exercise and fertility affects all of us though, even if we’re a long way from Olympic glory.