Miami, FL
How best-ever Miami GP defied fears over a Vegas F1 hangover
Just over five months on from a frantic – but highly successful – inaugural Vegas street race, a third Miami GP might have felt a little old hat for America’s recently acquired passion for F1. Had Miami been trumped?
But fears that Sin City had stolen all the limelight were allayed by a sell-out 275,000 Miami GP weekend crowd and a plethora of global celebrities, musicians and sports stars and even a former US President (and future candidate).
When asked by an American journalist if he thought Miami’s race had been diminished by the arrival of Vegas, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton replied: “Diminished? No, I think the sport’s got bigger here.
“It’s got a lot more awareness. Every city that I go to, people are excited. It’s now a sport here in the States. Before, it was just an event that arrived once a year. Now, we’re kind of a part of the culture here, which is really, really cool.
“It’s been amazing, and I think all of us are super grateful for the US finally embracing this sport and having the love and passion for it that we all have grown up with.”
Hard Rock Stadium president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, who is the managing partner of the Formula 1 event and the boss of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, explained to selected media including Autosport that he felt his event is proving out F1’s continued growth in the States.
“We are sold out; we’re over 275,000 tickets, he confirmed. “The grandstands, suites and hospitality mostly sold out last week.
“We sort of plan things to sell out right before the race, that’s how we like to do it. And we had some last-minute campus pass sales just over the last few days, but most of the tickets were already sold.
Tom Garfinkel meets Michael Andretti in the paddock Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“We’re still kind of trying to limit capacity a bit to make sure we can deliver the experience. I think if we put 125,000 people a day in here, traffic would get worse, concessions and bathroom [queues] and everything would get worse.
“We anticipate growing the attendance in the future, but right now we’re trying to just keep delivering this great experience hopefully and grow it slowly.”
As well as a packed house, celebs like Ed Sheeran, Kendall Jenner, Luis Suarez, Danny Ramirez, Tom Brady, Alexandra Daddario, Camilla Cabello and Patrick Mahomes strolled the paddock.
There was clearly no reduction in star names wanting to be seen here, and it seems that fan interest continues to be boosted by having celebrity attendees on site.
“I think the people that didn’t come in year one had FOMO [fear of missing out] and wanted to come in year two,” said Garfinkel of the event’s celebrity pulling power. “And then the people that maybe missed the first two years wanted to come this year.
“I got so much good feedback from some of those folks. One very, very famous athlete told me it was his favourite event he’d ever attended because he could be with his friends, he got in and out easily. He wasn’t being bothered for pictures and selfies and stuff. Then he ran into other friends of his that he didn’t expect to see.
“He was like, ‘this is the best event I’ve ever attended and I wanna come every year’. So, from that standpoint, I’m not surprised they’re coming back and that more people are coming that haven’t been here before.”
For RB’s sprint race hero Daniel Ricciardo, whose popularity in the US exploded thanks to Netflix’s Drive To Survive, he believes that the spectacle only continues to increase.
Daniel Ricciardo, AlphaTauri VCARB01 Photo by: Erik Junius
“I love when you mix sports and the States, I think it’s always a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m enjoying having three races here.
“I didn’t compete here last year, but I was here at the event. It felt like it was much kind of I’d say better, let’s say grander than year one, which is expected.
“It’s like a whole week of things now. And I feel that you know, our weeks have built out now not to the extent of a Super Bowl week but it’s getting there with events and people are interested.
“There’s kind of high from a Wednesday onwards, it’s not just the Sunday that they’re excited for the race. We had a really good crowd, a lot of young people, and I feel like a lot of a new audience coming in so it’s good to grow the sport for sure.”
In his role, which is second only to the Miami Dolphins billionaire owner Stephen Ross, Garfinkel gets the peruse the entire campus and is all about the details, listening to feedback and fine-tuning the experience for his patrons.
Of course, he spends most of his time in the exclusive suites and that gives him insight into what’s making them the hottest ticket in town.
“I think Miami attracts so many people because it’s culturally relevant,” he said. “When you combine Miami with what Formula 1 is, I think that combination creates a lot of great things.
“We have an area called the Palm Club, and just looking around who was in that room and then going to Carbone Beach [an exclusive off-site supper club that attracted Taylor Swift’s NFL boyfriend Travis Kelce, LeBron James and Ivanka Trump] and seeing who was in that…
“I was with people, you know, they are some of the wealthiest people in the world. There are CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world. There are NFL players, NBA stars, music stars and they’re all converging and hanging out, spending time together and we’re all kind of looking at each other.
“I was with one CEO of a huge bank and he’s like, ‘I can’t believe this room’ – and he’s been in a lot of rooms, you know what I mean?! So, it’s really amazing to see people of different ages, backgrounds, skin colour, all kinds.
Camila Cabello, singer
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“You’ve got hip-hop stars hanging out with CEOs of banks, hanging out with some billionaire, hanging out with an actress. You’re just standing there like ‘this is bizarre’ – but that’s a lot of fun.”
Garfinkel doesn’t see a risk of dilution with having three events in the US, and points to his group’s close ties with Vegas in particular, as they are both effectively partnered with F1 owners Liberty, rather than Austin’s ‘legacy’ United States GP event.
“I think Miami, Austin and Las Vegas are all three very different cities with three very different cultures,” he added. “And we’re trying to be uniquely Miami here, and Vegas does what Vegas does and Austin does what Austin does.
“I think those differences are all positive because it means that fans can choose which one they enjoy the most. Or choose to go to all three and have different experiences at all three.
“We’re just being Miami, and trying to do things a little differently, do some things that are fun across the spectrum from people that are spending $150 a day for a campus pass to people that might spend $15,000 a day for really high-end luxury experience.
“We’d love for this event to become like the Super Bowl or Wimbledon or the Masters or something where it’s an event you need to attend and you need to go to.
“And I think it’s got the potential to become that.”
Miami, FL
Jaylen Brown bidding war? Haslem drove this? All the fallout from Antetokounmpo trade to Miami
It was the blockbuster deal of the NBA offseason: After years of will-he/won’t-he, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has been traded to Miami.
It also feels like the first domino of what will be some other big moves — including possibly a Jaylen Brown bidding war and trade. At NBC, we’ve explained the Antetokounmpo trade, named its winners and losers, and broken down how it will impact fantasy teams. Still, the fallout from this trade just keeps coming. Here are some other notes and analysis surrounding Antetokounmpo’s move to Miami.
Jaylen Brown bidding war?
Boston tried to say, “We weren’t shopping Brown, it was only because this was Giannis Antetokounmpo.” Except a few years back, they said the same thing when Brown was rumored to be part of a trade offer for Kevin Durant. From Brown’s perspective, you don’t want to be the person in the relationship where your partner is always looking around for an upgrade.
Other teams are expecting Boston to make Brown available, and there could be a bidding war, something articulated well by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on the network’s “Get Up.”
“What I expect to happenis a bidding war for Jaylen Brown. In the most recent days, teams have been preparing for this eventuality, that it wouldn’t be the Boston Celtics who won the Giannis sweepstakes and that there would be a Jaylen Brown market. And now we’re going to watch that. I think it’ll take time to play out.”
If Brown becomes available, look for Houston and Atlanta to be at the front of the line for him, with a number of other teams — Portland has said it’s interested — in the mix. The challenge will be matching his salary, which is $57.1 million next season and totals about $183 million over the next three years. Brown is coming off his best season as a pro, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game.
Boston kept young players out
Why did Milwaukee ultimately choose the Miami offer over Boston? In part because, while Brown would have been the best individual player the Bucks could have gotten in return, they wanted more — specifically a young player like Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez, and Boston would not put them in the offer, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
Boston’s final offer was Brown and two unprotected first-round picks. Milwaukee preferred Miami’s offer… or at least one key person did.
Bucks co-owner Haslam pushed for Miami trade
Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam also owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns — a team that dealt with a trade demand from future Hall of Famer Myles Garrett. Then came the Antetokounmpo saga with the Bucks.
That led Haslam to push for the “certainty” of the Miami offer because he didn’t want to see Brown come to Milwaukee and force his way out in a couple of years, something Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports reported right after the trade went down.
Report: Haslam a ‘driving force’ in Giannis trade
Mike Florio looks at Jimmy Haslam’s reported role in the blockbuster Giannis Antetokounmpo trade and analyzes Haslam’s involvement as owner of the Cleveland Browns.
That was a concern of others in the Milwaukee front office, reports Sam Amick and Eric Nehm at The Athletic, who add there had been signs in recent weeks that Brown didn’t really want to land in Milwaukee.
Herro happy
Brown may not have wanted to go to Milwaukee, but Tyler Herro — who is a Milwaukee native — is excited to go home in the trade, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes.
Sources: Tyler Herro is thrilled about a fresh start and playing for his hometown team the Milwaukee Bucks. Herro always envisioned returning home at some point during his NBA career.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 23, 2026
Except Herro may not be staying in Milwaukee—there are multiple reports that the Bucks are listening to offers to trade him again. At the front of that line may be Detroit, which is looking for shooting and secondary ball-handling to pair with Cade Cunningham, and Herro fits that bill.
Is Anthony Edwards next?
Once one superstar is traded, the insatiable NBA trade rumor machine starts looking for the next star who might be on the move.
Is it about to be Anthony Edwards’ turn in the spotlight? ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on the latest Hoop Collective Podcast, “The NBA vultures are swirling around Ant in anticipation of him potentially becoming the next superstar who’s available in the trade market.” Multiple reports in recent years have said Edwards has been frustrated with the team building in Minnesota, dating back to when it traded away Karl-Anthony Towns to save money.
This is not happening fast. Minnesota has no intention of trading Edwards right now, and he still has three fully guaranteed years at $156.9 million left on this contract. There is no pressure to move him, and Edwards would deny he is even thinking about leaving.
That said, teams file these kinds of things away and just wait.
Miami, FL
Fiery, fatal crash shuts down southbound lanes of Don Shula Expressway in southwest Miami-Dade
An investigation is underway after a man was killed in a fiery crash with a truck on the Don Shula Expressway in southwest Miami-Dade early Tuesday morning, according to officials.
The Florida Highway Patrol said that a white Mercedes coupe was headed south on SR 847 (Don Shula Expressway), near Southwest 104th Street when it crashed into the back of a truck.
A large fire broke out after the crash, and investigators said that the driver of the Mercedes, who was only identified as an adult Hispanic male, died at the scene.
The fiery crash forced officials to shut down the southbound lanes of the roadway, and drivers were being asked to seek an alternate route.
Heavy delays were reported behind the crash, and delays also started to build in the northbound lanes near the scene.
The southbound lanes have since reopened.
No other information was released.
Miami, FL
Miami Heat slip behind Boston Celtics in Giannis Antetokounmpo race
The Miami Heat woke up Monday no longer in control of the chase they had led for weeks. With the 2026 NBA Draft set for Tuesday and the Milwaukee Bucks closing in on a resolution to the Giannis Antetokounmpo saga, Miami suddenly finds itself in a two-team race it is no longer favored to win.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday that Antetokounmpo is expected to be moved before the draft, with the Heat and Boston Celtics emerging as the two finalists. The Bucks have narrowed their talks to those clubs, sources told Charania, and are weighing two dramatically different packages for the former two-time MVP.
For a fan base that spent the better part of a month believing Miami was the team to beat, the shift landed hard. The Heat are still in it. They are simply no longer the favorite.
A two-team race with a Tuesday deadline
Milwaukee set the timeline itself. Bucks ownership signaled in May that it wanted Antetokounmpo’s future settled by the start of the draft, and Charania reported Monday on ESPN’s “Get Up” that a trade is expected to land in line with that cutoff.
Charania framed the two bids as opposites. One is built around an established star, the other around youth and draft capital, and he described the negotiations bluntly.
“These conversations have been a blood bath,” Charania said.
He also stressed that whatever happens, it will not balloon into a multi-team construction the way other blockbusters have. Whether the deal closes Monday or Tuesday, Charania said, it is expected to be a one-to-one trade between Milwaukee and one of the two finalists, with no third team folded in. That detail matters for Miami, because it removes one of the lifelines the Heat had been counting on.
Boston changed the math with Jaylen Brown
For most of the buildup, Miami held the perceived edge because the Celtics were reluctant to part with Jaylen Brown. That changed over the weekend. The Stein Line’s Marc Stein reported Monday that Boston emerged “with a real shot” to win the race built around a Brown-centric offer, with Milwaukee willing to consider a swap even without a third team to absorb his contract.
That is the development that flipped the race. Brown is a five-time All-Star and a former NBA Finals MVP coming off the best statistical season of his career, having averaged a career-high 28.7 points per game as Boston’s centerpiece. He is also a bona fide star Milwaukee can plug in immediately, which speaks directly to ownership’s stated preference to get a recognizable face back rather than a stack of prospects.
The money works, too. A Brown-for-Antetokounmpo framework lines up cleanly under the salary cap, and from Milwaukee’s vantage point, flipping one star for another carries better optics than entering a full teardown empty-handed.
Prediction markets moved with the news. Per Kalshi data, Miami’s implied odds slid from the low 60s into the mid-30s on Monday while Boston vaulted toward roughly 70 percent. Those figures shift by the hour and should be read as a temperature check rather than a forecast, but the direction of the swing is the story.
What Miami is putting on the table
The Heat’s pitch leans on volume and flexibility rather than star power. Reported frameworks have centered on Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic, with Kasparas Jakucionis and multiple future first-round picks also in the mix, and Miami holds the No. 13 overall pick in Tuesday’s draft.
It is a thoughtful offer for a rebuilding team. It is also, by definition, not a star, and that is the gap Boston is now exploiting.
There is a limit to how far Miami is willing to go. Bam Adebayo is the only player truly untouchable in the Heat’s discussions, and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald reported that the front office does not want to strip the roster and its draft capital down to the studs to get a deal done. That restraint is understandable given the franchise’s history of swinging big and missing, most painfully on Damian Lillard three years ago, but it also means Miami may be unwilling to match a price Boston now appears ready to meet.
The case for the Heat to lose this race
There is a real argument, voiced by some of the league’s most prominent analysts, that Miami should be careful what it wishes for. Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons both cautioned against the Heat gutting their young core for an aging star, with Lowe warning that the long-term cost could hollow out the roster.
“The concerns I think are very real for Miami,” Lowe said.
The basketball context behind that caution is hard to ignore. Antetokounmpo is 31 and coming off the most injury-plagued season of his career, appearing in just 36 games amid groin, calf and knee issues while the Bucks finished 32-50 and missed the playoffs, snapping a run of nine straight postseason appearances.
He still produced when available, averaging 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, but his looming free agency in 2027 is depressing his trade value across the league. For a Heat team that went 43-39 and has been hunting a co-star for Adebayo since dealing Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors, the math of trading a future for a 31-year-old’s prime window is genuinely fraught.
What happens next
The next 24 hours should decide it. Milwaukee has telegraphed the draft as its internal deadline, and the expectation is a resolution before Tuesday night, though multiple insiders have noted the saga could still spill into free agency if the Bucks decide their leverage is better served by waiting.
For Miami, the stakes are stark. Landing Antetokounmpo would end years of frustrated superstar pursuits and reset the franchise’s ceiling overnight. Losing him to Boston, again on the doorstep of a deal, would sting in a way Heat fans know all too well. Either outcome arrives soon, and for the first time in this chase, the Heat are watching it unfold without holding the best hand.
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