The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov on the business of basketball in 2025 and beyond
Sports Media with Richard Deitsch
Audacy
4.5 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 556 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features Mike Vorkunov, a basketball writer at The Athletic who covers the intersection of business and basketball. He is also the host and founder of Business Decision, a new podcast and YouTube show that focuses on the intersection of sports, money and power. In this podcast we discuss the challenges of starting an independent podcast and YouTube show; the biggest challenge and biggest opportunities today for the NBA; the NBA's global interests; how the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers-Aspiration story will play out; the women's basketball space for business opportunities; the upcoming WNBA CBA negotiations; a primer on Project B, a prospective women's basketball league to rival the WNBA, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
Transcript
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| 0:11.0 | 18 plus 1st of September to 24th of May. |
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| 0:18.8 | Values vary. |
| 0:20.9 | Restrictions in TNCs apply. |
| 0:24.3 | Daily odds boosts. |
| 0:25.6 | TNCs on labbrooks.com. |
| 0:28.6 | Gamblingware.org. |
| 0:32.5 | Welcome to the sports media podcast. |
| 0:39.1 | I'm your host, Richard Dij. |
| 0:39.9 | My producer is Patrick Antonetti. |
| 0:41.7 | One guest on this episode, this colleague of mine at the athletic. |
| 0:44.6 | Mike Borknoff is a senior sports business writer at the athletic. |
| 0:48.5 | I might have just even given that title. |
| 0:50.0 | Well, maybe called just senior writer, basically. |
| 0:52.5 | Also, the host and founder of business Decision, a podcast as well as a YouTube show that focuses on the intersection of sports, money, and power. |
| 1:04.7 | If you are a NBA viewer who's interested in the nexus of sports and business in the NBA. You have probably read |
| 1:13.7 | Mike. Mike, welcome to the sports media podcast. Thank you for having me on. I've listened to so |
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