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As a mainstay in the esports community, Ludwig Ahgren’s fans are familiar with his frequent streamer tournaments. This month, Ludwig is hosting another event with a twist: his Basketball Jam will feature internet personalities as they compete on the court. After reaching out to Los Angeles Lakers point guard Luka Dončić with an invitation, Ludwig received an unexpected video response, and it’s going viral. Let’s recap.

Luka Dončić is a professional basketball player and NBA athlete. He began his pro career in 2015, and has since played in 5 NBA All-Star games and represented his home country, Slovenia, through its national team. Dončić currently plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, and made headlines earlier in 2025 for his unexpected mid-season trade from the Dallas Mavericks.

Ludwig Ahgren, a streamer, content creator and commentator in the esports industry, is hosting a Basketball Jam tournament on Saturday, July 12 2025. The event will include six teams of streamers and influencers, who compete against each other for the grand prize. Naturally, Luka Dončić came to mind as a potential celebrity guest, so Ludwig reached out to his team online.

A while later, Ludwig received an unexpected reply: while Dončić could not attend the tournament due to scheduling conflict, he sent over a personalized video apologizing and asking Ludwig to ‘hang out’ in the future.

In the clip, Dončić says:

“Hey Ludwig, I know how hard you’ve worked. Good luck in the tournament. I wish I could be there. Let’s hang out? Ok, bye!”

Ludwig reacted to the post on X.com, calling it “the greatest video I’ve ever seen.” It has since gone viral, with over 90,000 likes and nearly 5 million views in just a few hours.

Dončić’s clip immediately sparked memes in Ludwig’s community due to its endearing awkwardness and corporate vibe. NBA reporter @mollyhannahm joked, “from now on when i have to cancel plans i’m just going to send this video.”

Another user, @yeeeeezos, included a threatening meme of Gru from Despicable Me, insinuating that Luka looked like he was being held hostage. Fellow netizen @kung_jook agrees, saying “Bro they had him at gunpoint,” and @yojustcolby opined “It looks like a video I would send to my friends so they knew I was being held captive.” Many commenters also remarked that while the video resembled a cameo or an A.I.-generated script, it likely just reflects Luka’s naturally introverted personality.

Related Article: Ludwig and League Community Call for Second NA MSI Slot After EU Flop Era

While Luka Dončić won’t be present at the Basketball Jam, his video has still brought plenty of attention to the esports community due to its unexpected meme status. NBA fans and gamers alike are seeing reposts and clips, sparking conversation.

Dončić is also involved in esports through his competitive queue standings. When Luka isn’t playing point guard, he’s playing Tank, and he has actually hit the role’s Top 500 rank in Overwatch. Famous streamers, including m0xy, have even spotted him in-game.

Several of Ludwig’s fans referenced this fun fact in the replies, with one saying: “Make it an overwatch tournament and he’s gonna be free all of a sudden.”

Related Article: 2025 Esports World Cup Overwatch Schedule, Format, Prize Pool

Devin Booker isn’t just the Phoenix Suns’ best player anymore. He’s become the heartbeat of an entire city. When news broke that Booker signed a historic two-year contract extension for $145 million, it sent shockwaves through the basketball world. But in Phoenix, it felt like something much bigger: the moment their homegrown star officially became theirs forever.

How Does Devin Booker’s Record $72.5 Million Annual Deal Change Everything?

The numbers alone tell an incredible story. Booker’s $72.5 million annual salary makes him the highest-paid player in NBA history, surpassing every superstar who came before him. However, for Suns management and Phoenix fans, this contract represents far more than dollar signs. It’s about everything Booker has brought to this city since arriving as a 19-year-old rookie in 2015.

His journey with the Suns reads like a storybook. The franchise’s all-time leading scorer, a two-time All-NBA selection, and a four-time All-Star, who helped end nearly three decades of heartbreak by leading Phoenix to the NBA Finals in 2021. His teammates recognized that this contract announcement wasn’t just a business transaction. It was a moment worth celebrating together.

According to NBA insider Shams Charania, the entire Suns roster flew to Las Vegas to surprise Booker with a team dinner at Delilah’s at the Wynn. No cameras, no publicity stunts. Just a private celebration of their leader, showing the genuine respect and admiration his teammates have for him.

ESPN’s @ShamsCharania says that the entire Suns roster flew out to Las Vegas Wednesday in honor of Devin Booker’s record contract extension.

He also said Booker and Mat Ishbia met for over an hour discussing the future direction and desires for the franchise.

@espn pic.twitter.com/ecaF8Aje0O

— Blake Niemann (@Blakes_Take2) July 11, 2025

“For starters, Devin Booker is Mr. Phoenix,” Charania explained. “Everything with Devin Booker has been commitment back to the franchise. He said publicly, privately, behind the scenes, he wants to retire in Phoenix, he wants to bring a championship to Phoenix.”

Why Does This Extension Mean Everything to Phoenix Fans?

That team dinner captured something no press release could ever convey. It showed how much Booker’s teammates value him and how much he values them in return. In a league where player movement dominates headlines, Booker’s loyalty stands out as something truly special. Phoenix has embraced him because of it. Suns owner Mat Ishbia released a statement about what Booker means to Arizona.

“Devin Booker is the embodiment of the Phoenix Suns, representing the best of our organization, our community and our future,” Ishbia said. “As the team’s all-time leading scorer, his on-court achievements are unparalleled and the result of his relentless preparation and unwavering pursuit of excellence.

“His character, leadership and ‘I’ll do it’ mentality define the standards and culture we uphold. Moreover, his connection with our fans is unique – his impact resonates across the Valley, and his tireless efforts in supporting Arizona’s youth and families reflect the deep community bond we cherish,” Ishbia added. Booker reciprocated.

“This moment means so much to me and my family,” Booker said in a message. “Ten years ago, my NBA dreams became reality when I was drafted here and Phoenix is my home. I love this city and am proud of what we have accomplished throughout my decade here. I am grateful to Mat Ishbia and the entire Phoenix Suns organization for the partnership. Thank you fans for your loyalty and support. More to come!!”

Not all roads are created equal. Just ask Ben Spencer and Peter Smorthit.

This July, the two became the first to cross the Alps by wheelchair.

Over 18 days, through searing heat and brutal gradients, the pair pushed themselves 422 kilometres – the equivalent of 10 marathons – from Montreux, on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, to Lake Como in Italy.

It didn’t come easy.

Days into the journey, the two faced a steep climb up a gorge. With no accessible path forward, Smorthit – a 33-year-old paraplegic – got out of his chair and dragged himself and his wheelchair more than a kilometre uphill as Spencer followed, moving only a few metres at a time. It took two hours.

“That was just an amazing feat of endurance,” says Spencer over a phone call from a roadside station in France, where the two had stopped on the way back to the UK.

Spencer is adamant that physical pain was a small price to pay for the bigger goal.

The two set off on this Alpine adventure to raise awareness and funds for ataxia, a rare neurological disorder that afflicts 12,500 people in the UK alone – including Spencer.

Ataxia is a cause worth climbing for

There are several forms of ataxia. All of them affect speech, balance, coordination, hearing and bladder control in various ways.

Ataxia is usually progressive, and there is no universal cure.

Since 2022, Spencer has lived with cerebellar ataxia, a form of the disease caused by damage to the cerebellum. As it has progressed, ataxia has relegated him almost exclusively to a wheelchair. He has issues with his bladder and gets fatigued easily, something that hinders his ability to speak. But you wouldn’t know this from his bio.

He and Smorthit stay more active than most of the global population. They play wheelchair rugby and have collectively completed hundreds of half marathons and marathons – plus some ultra marathons. They have traversed the Applecross Pass, or Bealach na Bà, one of the UK’s most challenging roads, known for its 20 per cent gradients and hairpin turns.

Smorthit once solo-travelled the 1,407 kilometres from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in Scotland, all while pulling a trailer behind a standard wheelchair.

In 2024 and 2025, the two also participated in the London Marathon. Both times, Spencer raised funds for Ataxia UK, a British charity that funds research into finding treatments and cures, while offering advice, information and support to people affected by the condition.

Their journey across Europe’s highest mountains this summer – Alps 4 Ataxia – also raised money for the charity.

Remarkably, all these achievements have occurred since Spencer was diagnosed, the moment he went from being “your overworked career guy” to a vocal – and visible – advocate for people living with ataxia. And people with disabilities in general.

In 2023, Spencer travelled all 272 London tube stations to raise awareness about his condition, as well as accessibility in the city’s most used public transport system.

“Only 93 of them are accessible,” he says.

“A lot of people will start getting upset for us [because] we can’t access something, so we’ll just throw ourselves out of our chairs, bump ourselves up on stairs and pull the wheelchairs behind us,” he adds.

“That’s the moment that able-bodied people get shocked about how inaccessible the world can be.”

What it really takes to cross the Alps in a wheelchair

This adventure tested them like none before.

The Alps presented not just steep climbs, but also blistering temperatures of nearly 40°C and moments of real danger, all against a backdrop of breathtaking landscapes.

“Peter is pretty much an endurance athlete, but with me and my ataxia, we really had to work out a pattern of how I could do it and recover,” Spencer says of managing the distance, the gruelling climbs over 2,000-metre passes and the heat all at once.

Before they left the UK, they had mapped a route using EuroVelo cycling paths and quiet roads through Switzerland and the Rhône Valley. A support crew of three, including two others with ataxia, helped with logistics. Originally planned as a 10- to 12-day journey, the trip stretched to 18 as the heat took its toll.

“Both Peter and I have trouble regulating our body temperature,” Spencer explains.

“Peter has a spinal cord injury and can go into [a potentially life-threatening condition] called AD [autonomic dysreflexia], where all of a sudden, he can pass out from the heat. One time, there was a close call. I ended up having to chuck a load of water over him.”

Despite the heat, the physical and mental lows were outweighed by the highs. Sometimes literal ones.

“Reaching the top of the first pass [in Switzerland] cemented the fact that we could do it,” Spencer says.

He also cherished conversations with passersby, using each as a chance to raise awareness about ataxia and challenge assumptions about disability.

“I really wanted people to understand that disabled people can achieve extreme things” – even those as extreme as crossing high mountain passes.

A wake-up call for accessibility advocates

The experience exposed gaps in accessibility, too.

“This trip has helped highlight that there’s more work to do to make the world accessible,” he says. Campsites listed as accessible lacked proper facilities, and some cycling routes included long gravel sections and nearly impassable obstacles.

“For wheelchair users to take part in outdoor sports, especially when it comes to going through rugged terrain or the countryside, there’s so much more that can be done.”

And for people living with disabilities like ataxia, travelling the Alps has provided a greater lesson.

“No matter what disability or condition you have,” Spencer says, “just never give up.”

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is meeting directly with players to push for a salary cap, according to a union official who warns membership is showing ‘the right amount of skepticism’ over the notoriously contentious issue.

‘It’s kind of continuation of a pattern which has gone on for decades, which is, the other side… tries to go directly to players, tries to create divisions between players,’ Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) deputy director Bruce Meyer told Foul Territory. 

‘The league and some of the individual owners have made no secret that they would like to see a system that they tried to get for 50 years, which is a salary-cap system.’

The 1994-95 MLB strike that cost fans the 1994 World Series was fought over the same issue. Owners tried to play the 1995 season with replacement players, only to reach an agreement with the union on a new labor deal void of any salary cap. Since then, the two sides have worked out five collective bargaining agreements, most recently in 2022.

That deal is set to expire on December 1, 2026.

Currently MLB is the only major American sports league without some form of a salary cap. The NFL and NHL both have hard salary caps, while the NBA has a soft-salary cap that allows for a variety of exceptions.

Manfred has been speaking to individual teams for the third consecutive season in an effort to convince players to make major changes to the sport’s economic landscape, according to The Athletic.

‘The pitch is like, ‘Hey, this is really good for the players,’ Meyer said. ‘One of the things players immediately seize on is, ‘Well, if this is so good for us, then why are they pushing it so hard? Why do they want it so desperately? Why did the other leagues lock out players to get it?’

‘Guys immediately understand that the reason they want that system is not because they want to pay players more.’

Manfred isn’t publicly demanding a salary cap, but he hasn’t exactly dismissed the idea either.

After the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani a backloaded $700 million deal en route to last year’s World Series crown, Manfred acknowledged ‘there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their teams’ ability to compete.’

‘This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on,’ Manfred said. ‘We need to pay attention to it, and we need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward.’

This season the Dodgers have an MLB-high $408 million payroll, while the Miami Marlins rank last at $86 million. What’s more, the league’s 15 largest markets have won each of the last nine World Series titles, while a true ‘small market’ hasn’t won the Commissioner’s Trophy since the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

But that discrepancy notwithstanding, Meyer told Foul Territory that baseball’s recent labor deals have allowed for competitive balance, even as some teams ostensibly refuse to spend.

‘I think the whole premise is wrong,’ Meyer said. ‘Baseball hasn’t had a repeat winner in 26 years. To fans in small markets, I would say, look, competition is crucial for us, crucial for players. Our market system that we have, it’s not perfect by any means, but it relies on competition.

‘To the extent we have teams that are unwilling to compete, it’s not because the Dodgers went out and signed some players. That doesn’t explain why the Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, don’t go out and spend money.’

The players, meanwhile, still want the owners to accept a salary floor to encourage MLB’s famous penny pinchers like the Pirates to spend on free agents.

Of course, owners would obviously oppose a floor without the addition of a cap as well.

Despite this, Meyer remains optimistic there won’t be any games missed due to a work stoppage.

‘I think we got reasonable people on both sides, hopefully,’ Meyer said. ‘I don’t think it’s in the economic interest of the owners, or the game, to shut down the game. They’re making lots of money.’

MLB revenue hit a record $12.1 billion in 2024, which is up from $11.6 billion a year earlier.

Daily Mail has reached out to a league spokesman for comment.

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