Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by Facebook.

Today is Monday, December 21st. TSA's screenings are up, Tesla stock is down, and we're focused on the new economics of professional basketball.

The NBA season kicks off tomorrow night, a scant three months after the L.A. Lakers held

up the championship trophy in the Orlando bubble.

But it's going to look a little different.

For starters, that bubble is gone.

Teams instead will play in their home arenas, well, except for the Toronto Raptors,

who will be playing in Tampa, Florida, because the Canadian government doesn't want Americans flying in and out of their country.

Most of those arenas won't have any fans, at least at the outset. Some will have a limited number of

fans, like the Utah Jazz, who plan to allow 1,500 fans in the lower bowl of their arena. The

goal is to play 72 games, 10 fewer than usual,

although the second half of the schedule hasn't yet been released so that the league can

adjust if COVID outbreaks cause cancellations. Why it matters is that the NBA will become the first

major U.S. Sports League to play a second season in the midst of the pandemic, and there

are questions about how long the economics can work if fans remain home on the couch.

Yes, it's a league full of billionaire owners and millionaire players, and there are still big

TV contracts. But at some point, the loss of all that ticket revenue, not to mention all the

food and parking and all the rest of it, well, the loss of all that ticket revenue, not to mention all the food and parking

and all the rest of it, well, the gravy train can run out of fuel. So in 15 seconds, we'll go deeper

with Milwaukee Bucks owner Mark Lazary, who just made news of his own by resigning the league's

two-time MVP. But first, this. We're joined now by Milwaukee Bucks co-owner and hedge fund manager, Mark Lazary.

So Mark, let's start with your big news, which was last week resigning Janus to this massive

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