Albert Samaha
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samaha.bsky.social
Albert Samaha
@samaha.bsky.social
Washington Post journalist & author of “Concepcion” & “Never Ran, Never Will” / [email protected]
Court docs we obtained show Ballmer testified that Robertson asked for a house & sponsorships during Leonard’s 2019 free agency, & that Ballmer told him NBA rules only allowed him to “make introductions.”

That & much more in our story: wapo.st/4oNuTXM
November 17, 2025 at 12:47 PM
DHS agents at the Rose Bowl shuttle bus stop before the PSG-Botafogo Club World Cup game
June 19, 2025 at 11:57 PM
While the biggest NIL deals make headlines, the vast majority of college athletes string together small-money deals – all the more so in women’s sports
October 23, 2024 at 5:14 PM
A talent management agency that represents Sanders produces a docuseries about his team & pays his players to appear on & promote the show – a total of around $600,000 during Sanders’s first season in Boulder. Top stars have gotten as much as $120k from SMAC Productions.
October 23, 2024 at 5:14 PM
A reason for this disparity is that booster collectives, run mostly by men, channel money mostly to men’s sports. While men’s basketball & football players get paid for athletic talent, women earn NIL money by building social media followings to tap into the influencer economy
October 23, 2024 at 5:13 PM
The records contain info on $125m worth of NIL deals.

8 schools sent logs listing every payment athletes have disclosed – 22k transactions in all, from six-figure endorsement deals for top stars to lower-profile deals valued at barely a few dollars.
October 23, 2024 at 5:11 PM
To get this data, we filed public records requests to 56 major conference public universities. (24 states require college athletes to disclose NIL deals to schools; some schools in other states do too.)

Many schools denied our request, but 25 schools sent documents
October 23, 2024 at 5:10 PM