GIBBI, Today

Jun 19, 2025

Stories:

Pacers vs Thunder, tonight at 20:30 ET on Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Thunder are leading the series 3-2, where Thunder won the Game 2, Game 4 & Game 5; and Pacers won the Game 1 & Game 3
My Prediction:
- Thunder win by 2+ points, will win the series & the championship
GIBBI View: Pacer need to win this game to avoid elimination and force a Game 7, and Haliburton is in doubt to play tonight for an injury that had in Game 5 and this is the first time that Pacers are trailing in playoffs; Thunder are leading the series for time and have everything in favor to win the game and the championship, where I think that if Thunder loss this game, Thunder will have in risk to loss the series and championship in the Game 7

The Tampa Bay Rays say they are in “exclusive discussions” with a Florida investment group for a potential sale of the team. The Rays are valued at $1.25 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Stuart Sternberg bought the Major League Baseball club for $200 million in 2004
“The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team,” the club said Wednesday while declining further comment
Before the hurricane, the Rays and the city had agreed on a plan for a $1.3 billion stadium development project next to Tropicana Field. In March, Sternberg said the club was withdrawing from that agreement
GIBBI View: I think that this is the best decision for the organization because even that Rays have been one of the “cheapeast” teams since Stuart Sternberg bought the team and that Rays have been one of the best teams in the last 10 years where have came 2 times in World Series (2008, 2020), I think that a new owners could make that this team could increase its possibilities to play and win a World Series in the next 5 years

The Buss family is entering into an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter for a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion, sources told ESPN on Wednesday, the highest ever for a U.S. professional sports franchise
The Buss family will keep a minority share of the team, just over 15%, for a period of time, a source said
Jeanie Buss will remain the Lakers' governor and continue to run the team for "at least a number of years," sources with knowledge of the deal told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. It was guaranteed as part of the agreement that Buss would remain in charge for the foreseeable future, and Walter fully endorsed this plan
GIBBI View: I think that this a terrific news for Lakers’ fans (including me) and for the NBA, because now knowing how Mr. Walter manages his teams (Dodgers, Chelsea, etc) he’s going to invest a lot of money in the team to bring top players to try to win a championship; about Mrs. Buss, I think that she’s going to stay 2 to 3 years from now and later she’s going to resign/fire and Walter is going to bring a new CEO; this is the third time in 2 years that a NBA Team decide to sell a majority stake (Mavs, Celtics)

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta offered employees of rival OpenAI signing bonuses of $100 million to switch companies, according to Open AI CEO Sam Altman
“They started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team,” Altman said Tuesday on the “Uncapped” podcast hosted by his brother Jack. “You know, like $100 million signing bonuses.”Altman said that Meta’s attempts to poach his staff have failed, at least so far
Zuckerberg is reportedly so frustrated with Meta’s efforts in the AI space that he has taken it upon himself to meet with experts in the field at his homes and has reportedly shifted the layout of the company’s Menlo Park headquarters to put the new team near his office, according to Bloomberg and the New York Times
GIBBI View: I don’t know if Meta is trying to pay this kind of money to recruit OpenAI’s employees but I think that this is a Sam’s strategy to put pressure to Meta and increase the motivation to his workers; by the way, if I worked in OpenAI and Meta would try to recruit me and would offer me $100 million, to be honest I wouldn’t doubt to accept it because it’s life change decision and it’d improve my life for ever

For a third time since taking office in January, President Donald Trump plans to extend a deadline that would require China’s ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business
“President Trump will sign an additional Executive Order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark
ByteDance originally faced a Jan. 19 deadline to comply with the national security law, but Trump signed an executive order when he first took office that pushed the deadline to April 5. Trump extended the deadline for the second time a day before that April mark
GIBBI View: Now that Trump decided to extend for third time the TikTok deadline, I think that ByteDance won’t sell TikTok U.S. and Trump will have to ban TikTok in the end of the year of in the beginning of next year; another option is that China could use this potential sale to negotiate the reduction or elimination of Trump’s tariffs

GIBBI