The Barkley Treatise, Box Office Massacres, The Sephora Wars

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon download of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Dylan Byers unearths the latest drama enveloping the NBA rights auction: David Zaslav’s $2.6 billion question, Inside the NBA’s existential fears, the Charles Barkley of it all, and more.

Plus, below the fold: William D. Cohan takes a microscope to Sam Bankman-Fried’s beef with Sullivan & Cromwell. Rachel Strugatz reveals the latest obsessions consuming beauty industry insiders. Tina Nguyen presents her wide-ranging conversation with conservative lobbyist Ralph Reed. On The Town, Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw lament the disastrous Memorial Day box office weekend. And on The Powers That Be, Dylan and John Ourand dig into the nitty-gritty of the NBA broadcast rights debacle.

DYLAN BYERS

As NBC Sports closes in on the NBA “B package,” executives and agents are beginning to contemplate who will lead the broadcasts and studio shows. And whom to pick off from TNT if Zaz is unable to wrest the final package away from Amazon.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

LAWMEN: BASS REEVES follows the journey of the most legendary lawman in the Old West: Bass Reeves, who rose from enslavement to law enforcement as one of the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshals west of the Mississippi. Despite arresting over 3,000 outlaws during his career, the weight of the badge was heavy, and he wrestled with its moral and spiritual cost to his beloved family.

The limited series stars David Oyelowo as Bass Reeves in a performance The New York Times calls “focused and intense and emotionally true.”

Click to watch a conversation with David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

The crypto convict is on a cross-country prison bus to California, planning his appeal, and claiming Sullivan & Cromwell bartered away his freedom. Does he have a case?

RACHEL STRUGATZ

News and notes on the latest intrigue consuming beauty insiders: Sol de Janeiro leapfrogging Rare Beauty at Sephora and Glossier’s Balm Dotcom pivot.

TINA NGUYEN

A wide-ranging interview with Ralph Reed, the religious leader and lobbyist, about the Republican politics of abortion, the evolution of the Israel issue, and why evangelicals are all in on Donald Trump.