Rumors

Langston Galloway: What an experience this week has been! Had the opportunity to visit Silicon Valley, to see @facebook. And since I’m a big gamer had to stop by @Twitch. pic.twitter.com/3yIx6z4KUU

Twitter

But they knew where they wanted to draw the line. The Lakers wouldn't allow the Balls' Facebook Watch show, "Ball in the Family," to film games for free, as other NBA teams have. According to sources, AEG (a minority owner of the Lakers, which owns and operates Staples Center) charged the production company that produces the show when they filmed at games. And when Lonzo Ball wanted to buy 20 premier-level tickets to every Lakers home game for his extended family, a source said he was charged $150,000, the same amount as any other customer for those seats.

ESPN

This kind of brand value and stickiness is incredibly valuable online. Facebook used the show to launch its new Watch platform in August, and it has easily been one of the most successful shows thus far. It is fast-paced, funny and heartfelt at times, and it's produced by Bunim/Murray, which also does "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." It's also been quite lucrative for the Ball family. According to multiple sources close to the situation, the family was paid "millions" of dollars to do the show.

ESPN

What did the Lakers say when they heard about the show? Any concerns expressed? LaVar Ball: “What did the Lakers say? They don’t got to ask me nothing. I ain’t going to ask them nothing. This thing got nothing to do with the Lakers. This is what my boys and my family do. What we do, on the outside. “As long as he [Lonzo] produce on that court and do what he suppose to do…this is what people get caught up on. ‘Oh shoot! Lamar Odom started dating Khloe Kardashian.’

Clutch Points

As Lonzo Ball experienced a transitional summer, reality television cameras were there to document it. Bunim/Murray productions, the production company responsible for MTV’s “The Real World” and E!’s “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” is taking on the Lakers great hope for the future. Their new project, “Ball in the Family,” followed Ball, the Lakers’ No. 2 overall pick, his outspoken father, LaVar, his mother, Tina, and his brothers, LiAngelo and LaMelo. The show’s first two episodes will debut on Thursday. According to a release, the show includes 10 episodes that will normally air Sundays, starting Sept. 10 on Facebook Watch.

Los Angeles Times

Returning the Favor features Mike Rowe (Somebody’s Gotta Do It) as he travels the country searching for people who put their community over themselves and shines a spotlight on their contributions. A recently filmed episode, which Rowe teased on his Facebook page, focuses on a motorcycle mechanic who runs an operation helping vets with PTSD. The second project is a yet-to-be-titled docuseries about the Ball family, whose sons Lonzo, Liangelo and LaMelo have taken the basketball world by storm. Freshman UCLA star Lonzo Ball was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers as their No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft last month. Liangelo and LaMelo are stand-outs at Chino Hills High School.

deadline.com

The Indiana Pacers were told to stay in their team hotel Sunday night because the search for the Facebook killer in Cleveland was still ongoing. "We were instructed to stay put because of the situation that was happening last night," Pacers coach Nate McMillan said during the Pacers' Monday morning shootaround.

USA Today Sports

"We have all the security parameters in place for the Cavs game that we normally do and things above that," Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams said Monday morning. "Everybody will be safe coming to the Cavs game tonight." Local and federal police forces were still searching for Steve Stephens, 37, who filmed and later posted the killing of 74-year-old Robert Godwin Jr. on Facebook on Sunday.

USA Today Sports

Philadelphia 76ers-Backed Team Dignitas partners with Facebook for live streaming

SportTechie

While everyone wasn't pleased with the change or how the league handled the announcement, fans were ready and waiting to watch these games. That is when the problems started to arise. Not only did almost every broadcast experienced significant problems with both audio and video, but the way the broadcast itself looked was like that of a frustrated streamer on Twitch. People took to Twitter to air their frustrations.

Ridiculous Upside

In addition to Thompson, other players who spent time at tech companies include vets Ryan Hollins and Al-Farouq Aminu, at Facebook, and C.J. Watson, Dahntay Jones, Wilson Chandler and Moses Ehambe, at Google. "The main purpose of this program is exposing the players to multiple career options and letting them see what skills they need to develop in order to be competitive in this other world," Taylor said. Technology companies were popular destinations because "this generation of players lives and breathes with technology and their smartphones."

CNET

If fans become friends with the new NBA bot on Facebook, they’ll be able to request specific highlights featuring any player from the two teams in the finals. For example, people can search for “Steph Curry,” and they’ll immediately have access to highlights featuring the Warriors’ three-point star. People can also set alerts, and the bot will notify them when clips have been added featuring their favorite players or teams.

Wall Street Journal

On YouTube, anyone with a viral video can flip a switch to show ads before it plays. Facebook won’t make it that easy, at least not for everyday users. At launch, the company is partnering with “a few dozen” major content creators like the NBA, Hearst, and Fox Sports on its revenue share program. It’s planning to add more partners, but it’s essentially hand picking those publishers, which means they’ll be big publishers with big followings.

Re/Code

What social media he's on... Paul Pierce: I am on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. ... Twitter, I’ll tweet when I’m rooting for a game, I always tweet out photos of my family on Halloween or on vacation, and I do use it to share what my corporate partners want to communicate. Instagram is photo-heavy and I use it when at events or on the road taking photos, and Facebook is a combo of the two. Facebook my management team usually manages for me, and they curate from everything that’s on Twitter and Instagram as well as good articles that are being written about me or my team and my foundation.

NetsDaily