As the NBA closes in on a new media rights deal, much of the attention has been on what it means for the league and its teams. But there’s also another beneficiary of the set of deals that will reportedly pay the league an average of $6.9 billion over 11 years: the players.

Those new deals — whether they end up with Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC or Amazon as partners alongside Disney – should more than double the current deals, which are slated to pay the league roughly $3 billion next season in the final year of its contracts with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. While not guaranteed, the expectation among team executives is that the salary cap will rise the maximum allowable 10 percent over the first seasons under the new media landscape, which will begin with the 2025-26 season.

The amount of money set to pour into the league will likely bring about what surely was once considered an impossible feat: the $100 million salary.

NBA players are already amassing wealth like never before. Any player part of the 2022 draft class will have the opportunity to make more than $1 billion alone in NBA contracts, before any endorsements or sponsorship deals. If the cap keeps rising as projected, a player might be able to make that much over the course of two contracts in his prime. Jaylen Brown’s record-setting contract, which could be worth as much as $304 million, could look small by comparison.

The NBA could have its first $100 million salary by the 2032-33 season. That’s assuming a salary cap of $141 million next season, as the league currently projects, and then 10 percent cap-raises after that.

Under that forecast, the salary cap would hit more than $302 million, which would allow a number of players to cross the $100 million threshold. For example, a player in the first year of his supermax contract, which pays 35 percent of the cap, could make as much as $105.79 million during the 2032-33 season — that’s double the league-high $51.9 million Stephen Curry made this season. A player in the second year of a supermax contract that kicked in the season before could make $103.86 million that season. A player in the third year of a supermax contract that began during the 2030-31 season could make $101.41 million.

The size of the contracts will be eye-popping. A five-year supermax deal that begins with the 2030-31 season will be worth $507 million under these estimates. One that begins the next season will be worth $557.78 million. The supermax that kicks in during the 2032-33 season would be valued at $613.56 million.

Those numbers could be overly generous, of course. Maybe the cap doesn’t go up 10 percent every year, and salaries don’t go up so quickly. While the national media rights could account for roughly 30-40 percent of all basketball revenue when they kick in, the local media revenue seems set to dip — and who knows what other issues might pop up.

That timetable might also be too slow. Either the NBA or the NBPA could opt-out of this CBA by Oct. 15, 2028 and that would trigger a new CBA for the 2029-30 season. What if that CBA doesn’t have cap-smoothing and has no ceiling on how quickly the cap can go up? Or, it gets rid of the rule that sets max salaries at 35 percent of the cap? Get ready for some big numbers.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and president of global content & media distribution Bill Koenig have surely made a lot of people happy. The league’s still-new collective bargaining agreement was written with a new media rights deal in mind and this should allow the NBA to have labor peace through the end of this CBA, set to run until 2030 if no one opts out. There was always a small chance that the NBA would ever have to execute the opt-out clause it has in the current CBA that lets it get out of the agreement if its media income fell to a certain threshold compared to what it took in during the 2022-23 season. But with such large numbers on the horizon, the league — and its players — is approaching even loftier wealth.

Since it’s never too early to talk about the offseason — at least that’s what every TV segment about the NBA tells me — it’s a good time to remind everyone about this summer’s hottest read: the CBA.

Some of the most restrictive parts of the new CBA are set to come in next season and the new cap year starts on July 1. They will color how teams act this summer.

Starting with the first day after the just-concluded regular season, teams above the first apron ($172.346 million) can only trade for a player who makes up to the value of the salary they are dealing away. Any traded player exceptions first-apron teams generated over the past year will no longer be usable unless they get back down below the apron.

Teams above the second apron ($182.794 million) can no longer aggregate player salaries — that provision kicked in with the end of the regular season. Those teams cannot send out their own player in a sign-and-trade, and they can’t send cash in a trade.

The “frozen pick” rule will go into effect next season. If a team is above the second apron on the last day of the 2024-25 regular season, then its first-round pick seven years out (2032) cannot be traded. If that team is above the second apron in two of the next four years, that frozen pick will also be moved to the end of the first round in that year’s draft. A team can unfreeze its pick if it is below or equal to the second apron in at least three of the next four years.

If a team does one of the things listed above, then it will be hard-capped at the apron threshold it has yet to cross.

If a team pulls off a trade between the end of the regular season and the start of the new cap year with a maneuver that is not allowed for teams above the first or second apron, then that team will be hard-capped for the rest of the current salary cap year and the next one. But the new CBA does allow teams some flexibility because that doesn’t kick in until after the 2024-25 regular season; teams can still have their total salaries go above an apron level between the end of the 2023-24 regular season through June 30, 2024 without being hard-capped.

There is also a new concern for teams that don’t hit the salary floor. Starting with the 2024-25 season, teams that don’t hit the floor won’t receive any of the money paid out to non-taxpaying teams.

Beginning on July 1, teams will now be able to use the non-taxpayer midlevel, the room midlevel or the biannual exception to trade for one or multiple players or acquire a player on a waiver claim (the player’s contract can’t exceed the max length allowed by that exception). The exception won’t be able to get aggregated.

Teams will also get more latitude with extend-and-trade contracts. On July 1, those will be able to go up to a total of four years and 120 percent of the prior salary.

(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)

A crash at NASCAR’s All-Star Race, where no points are awarded, resulted in fists flying in the garage area.

Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got into a brawl after the No. 8 finished in 10th place in the race. The two were then seen exchanging words when Stenhouse threw a punch.

The two had to be separated as crews from both teams started to get after one another.

Reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney said he didn’t see the fight, but after he watched video, he remarked “it was a wild one.”

“Tempers flare all the time. No matter what you do, sometimes they boil over. You have disagreements, and sometimes hands are thrown,” Blaney said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.

“Tensions are high. It’s just one of those things in sports. Sometimes, they boil over, and that’s what happens. Guys disagree, and emotions get the best of them. It was a wild one, that’s for sure.

“It’s hard to calm the adrenaline down when you’re running 200 miles an hour.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., parks the No. 47 Kroger Health/Icy Hot Chevrolet in Kyle Busch’s pit area and speaks to the crew in the pit box after an on-track incident during the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway May 19, 2024, in North Wilkesboro, N.C.  (James Gilbert/Getty Images)

NASCAR DRIVER BELLY-FLOPS INTO MASSIVE FLOOD ON PIT ROAD AS RAIN POSTPONES RACE

There’s not much difference between altercations in NASCAR and any other sport, the 30-year-old says.

“I can’t relate to what other players go through in their sport, what’s maybe dirty or not,” Blaney said. “I’m sure you go to football, someone’s trying to get you low. That’s probably a no-no, and guys get ticked off about that. Racing’s kind of the same. You get intentionally wrecked, you’re gonna be pretty mad about that.

“Just like anything else, disagreements lead to people putting hands on people and makes some exciting TV. But, yeah, just like anything, you think you were wronged, you’re going to try to make it right.”

NASCAR fined Stenhouse $75,000 and suspended his father and two crew members for their involvement in the brawl. Busch and his teammates received no punishment.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 47 Kroger Health/Icy Hot Chevrolet, exits the track after an incident during the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway May 19, 2024, in North Wilkesboro, N.C. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

In a shouting match after the fight, Stenhouse threatened to wreck Busch this weekend at Charlotte. NASCAR is expected to meet with Stenhouse to warn that any retaliation on the track would likely result in more serious penalties for the JTG Daugherty Racing driver.

FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass contributed to this report.

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All night, bricks.

Then, boom.

All night, dreadful.

Then, dagger.

Caitlin Clark spent most of her first visit to Los Angeles stuck in terrible traffic Friday, stalling and swerving and slamming the brakes as her Indiana Fever team careened toward embarrassment.

Then, FasTrak.

She really is unreal. She really is magic.

With 2:27 remaining and the Fever clinging to a three-point lead against the Sparks at Crypto.com Arena, Clark nailed her first three-pointer of the night, a deep and looping trey.

She spread out her arms. She stuck out her tongue. The sold-out building shook.

Then with 40 seconds remaining and the Fever clutching a two-point lead, she did it again, draining a deep rainbow three to clinch a 78-73 victory, earn her first WNBA win and cement two priceless memories for those lucky enough to bear witness.

As Clark walked across the court after the final buzzer, the crowd continued to scream as if she was a rock star. When she later walked into the postgame news conference, she bore the swaggering smile of a baller.

In her sixth WNBA game, after five losses and countless struggles and heaps of criticism, the collegiate icon has perhaps rediscovered herself.

”Nights like tonight remind me of why I love playing basketball, why I started playing basketball,” Clark said. “Because you get a win and you walk off the court and there’s so many young kids just screaming your name and love getting to watch you.”

If you were wondering how a 22-year-old kid from Iowa became the most celebrated athlete in America, this is why. This was how. This was it.

This was what the roars are about. This is what 19,103 people came to see. This is what has pumped new life into a WNBA that is regularly setting attendance and viewership records. This is what has transformed women’s basketball everywhere.

Those two shots, forged from nine straight misses, nailed by a woman wearing Kobe Bryant shoes and determined to honor Kobe Bryant’s memory.

“Kobe’s the best, man,” she said. “That’s the mentality you have to have … you want those moments, you embrace those moments.”

For the longest time Friday, it seemed like those moments would again elude her. As the Sparks grabbed an 11-point halftime lead and continued to roll early in the fourth quarter, Clark was getting pushed all over the court by the likes of Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon and frequent Sparks’ double-teams.

You have to see the 6-foot Clark in person to realize the extent of her disadvantage. She’s small. She’s slight. It’s startling to watch this college giant get so easily smothered by the bigger and more aggressive WNBA veterans.

She made two of her first 12 shots. She showed off her incredible court vision with several pretty assists and she grabbed a bunch of rebounds, but the best part of her game was missing.

Then, just in time, the greatest scorer in college basketball history found herself.

Sparks guard Layshia Clarendon, right, guards Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) in Los Angeles Friday.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

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“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I seriously think every shot is going to go in,” Clark said. “I want to take those shots at the end of the game. It’s like a mindset and confidence you have to have about yourself.”

What does that confidence sound like? Listen to what she said after that first trey drained.

“I went to the bench after and I was like, ‘I was due. They had to go in, I had missed so many, it was time to go in,” she said.

She finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and a cool compliment from the beneficiary of several of her passes.

“Katlin’s vision is second to none,” said Temi Fagbenle, who scored 17. “I love, I love love playing with her. I know I’m open, but I don’t know if she knows I’m open, then she knows and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, she knew!’”

All of which will perhaps convince critics to take a break from the incessant sniping that began with Clark’s 10-turnover debut.

The verdict that she was a bust — after only five games — was so pervasive that it ran her and teammate Aliyah Boston off social media. Many fans seemingly forgot that she was still a rookie, and that she played for a team so outmatched it had just earned the No. 1 draft pick during consecutive seasons.

“People don’t want to give us much grace,” Clark said. “They expect us to be world champions on Day 1. That’s not realistic. There’s a learning curve here.”

She’s been frequently crushed by that curve, yet she has continued to move gracefully beneath America’s hottest sports spotlight, taking every question, giving refreshing and honest interviews while never criticizing anyone but herself.

If you listen to her coach, those two Friday night shots will be remembered as just part of her inspiration.

“She’s handling it unbelievable. … She’s handling it with such poise. … She shows a level of maturity for a 22-year-old that is unbelievable. … She’s special, she’s different,” Fever coach Christie Sides said of Clark. “The bullets are just coming, every day … we’re scrutinized for everything.”

Clark admitted that the attention has been draining,

“Honestly, I feel like I talk to the media more than I get to talk to my own family, which is really kind of sad in a way,” she said. “It’s a lot for somebody who is 22 years old. It can be tough at times.”

And then, as another memorable Friday night in Hollywood proved, it can be wonderful.

“I was excited to come here and play in this place,” Caitlin Clark said. “Obviously there is so much history in this building.”

And now there’s more.