
NBA star Durant invests in PSG as French club plan basketball future
June 20 (Reuters) - NBA star Kevin Durant has purchased a minority stake in French soccer club Paris St Germain, the Champions League winners said on Friday, and the Phoenix Suns forward will provide expertise on their planned expansion into basketball.
Durant, two-time NBA champion and four-time Olympic gold medallist, has signed a share purchase and strategic partnership agreement with PSG's majority shareholder Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), through his company Boardroom.
"It is an honour to partner with QSI and to be a shareholder of Paris St Germain, a club and a city that is deeply close to my heart," Durant, who won gold at the Paris Olympics last year, said.
"This club has big plans and I look forward to being part of the next phase of growth and exploring new investment opportunities with QSI."
One of those opportunities is likely to come in the world of basketball, with PSG already involved in early-stage talks with the NBA regarding potential investment and venues for a new basketball league in Europe.
Durant, who had already forged a link with PSG through the club's minority shareholder Arctos Partners, will partner on a wide range of commercial, investment and content production initiatives.
The 36-year-old will also support the club in its strategy of diversification and growth on sporting and commercial fronts, including developing the club's strategy in the United States and other international markets.
PSG said in their release that Durant would provide "expertise on PSG's multi-sport strategy, particularly regarding future projects in the field of basketball".
Durant was recently included in Forbes' 2025 list of the world's highest-paid athletes, coming in at number 10 with earnings of $101.4 million.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Times
23 minutes ago
- Times
A grand design — the watch that captures the spirit of Ferrari
'And this is Alain,' says Amanda Mille, the brand and partnerships director at the company her father, Richard, founded. We are in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo to see the unveiling of Richard Mille's new collaboration with Ferrari. And the Alain who has just been so insouciantly introduced is none other than Alain Prost, racing legend and winner of four Formula 1 world championships. Between 1990 and 1991 the Frenchman was a Ferrari driver, and this is why he is here today, along with a more recent alumnus of the team's school, the Brazilian Felipe Massa, who raced for Scuderia Ferrari from 2006 to 2013. Massa also has the distinction of being the first brand partner to sign up with Richard Mille, back in 2004 when the company was a fledgling business making only about 300 watches a year. He talks fondly of how he agreed to wear a watch as a test driver at a time before Richard Mille had any formal budget for such things. The relationship has endured, and Massa always raced wearing a Richard Mille. The RM 43-01 Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph Ferrari, POA, The luxury Swiss watchmaker launched in 2001 with the aim of crafting thoroughly modern timepieces. A fan of motors and motor racing, Mille described his supertechnical lightweight designs as being like 'a racing machine on the wrist'. His son Alexandre, the company's commercial director, says, 'For my father, this partnership with Ferrari is a dream come true.' Beyond the synergies of quality, technology and innovation that connect the two firms, both are also clearly about passion. Massa puts it well: 'It is a great pleasure to be part of [Richard Mille] history, being part of the family. It is like when you enter Ferrari — you are always a Ferrari driver from the beginning and part of the 'religion'.' The Monegasque Charles Leclerc, who now drives for the team, would surely agree. He has been supported by Richard Mille since 2009, when he was karting. Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari's chief design officer, sees the two brands as natural partners. 'A collaboration like this is as much predicated on similarities in values as it is on the visual similarities between a Ferrari engine or component and the elements in a watch.' The first Richard Mille and Ferrari joint effort, 2022's RM UP-01 Ferrari, is a 1.75mm-thin timepiece, a curious and distinctive design that references dials on a dashboard. But the new launch is more recognisably Richard Mille. The RM 43-01 has the firm's signature barrel shape and skeleton construction. But it is not a piece that has simply been badged with a Ferrari logo: the watchmaker worked closely with Ferrari's Centro Stile in Maranello, near Modena, for three years to express the spirit of the cars in the form of a timepiece. It is the beauty of the RM 43-01 as much as its performance that captures the attention. The oscillating tourbillon compensates for the impact of gravity and the chronograph can measure split times with its two seconds hands, but it is the crafted look and feel — and the echoes of the driving machines — that really set it apart. The clutch wheel of a Ferrari V8 engine inspired the barrel jewel setting, while x-shaped supports combined with screws in gold with hexagonal socket heads reference details on Ferrari crankcases and engine blocks. The pushers, case and indices take styling cues from the geometry of the bodies of Ferrari's SF90 Stradale, Daytona SP3 and 488 Challenge Evo models, while a titanium plate shaped to recall the rear wing of the 499P hypercar is engraved with the firm's famous prancing horse motif. 'In terms of performance, anything that has a technical purpose can also be beautiful,' Manzoni says. 'The concept of functional beauty is something that we really love.' And clearly Richard Mille loves it too.


Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Paulino pips Nasir, Cherotich beats Chemutai at Paris Diamond League
PARIS, June 20 (Reuters) - Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino outfought Salwa Eid Naser to win the women's 400 metres at the Paris Diamond League meet on Friday, Faith Cherotich won the steeplechase and Grace Stark set a personal best to outgun Tobi Amusan in the 100m hurdles. Dominican Republic's Paulino needed a season's best time of 48.81, a new meeting record, as the world champion came from behind to pip Bahrain's Naser, who took silver at last year's Olympics. "All I focused on was to get to through to the finish line feeling strong, although I am not feeling very well, my stomach has been playing up a bit," Paulino said. Kenyan Cherotich took bronze at the Paris Olympics behind Ugandan silver medallist Peruth Chemutai in the 3,000m steeplechase, and the pair left the rest of the field behind early in the race. This time 20-year-old Cherotich came out on top as she left her rival behind in the closing metres, with a personal best time of 8:53.37, to repeat her wins in Doha and Oslo. "It's great that I have already won three Diamond Leagues this season being the youngest in the field," Cherotich said. "The big goal are the World Championships in Tokyo and I want to win." Nigeria's world record holder and 2022 world champion Amusan had to settle for second place as American 24-year-old Stark led from the start to win the women's 100m hurdles in 12.21 seconds, knocking one tenth of a second off her personal best. "I wanted to break that 12.3 so bad, I was really pushing for it in Stockholm," Stark said. "I'm just so excited to break 12.3, I really knew I could do it this year." In the men's 400m hurdles, Olympic champion Rai Benjamin barely broke sweat in setting a meeting record 46.93, doing enough down the home straight to hold off Qatar's Abderrahman Samba, who had set the previous record back in 2018. "I just took it easy because we just had a really fast race in Stockholm. There was no need to come out and force something, especially because the season is so long," Benjamin said. Ukrainian Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh broke the world record with a leap of 2.10 meters at last year's meeting, but she could only manage 1.97 this time to take second place behind Australia's Nicola Olyslagers. The men's 1,500m may not have been a Diamond League event, but the race had the home crowd on their feet as France's Azeddine Habz smashed the national record with a world leading time of 3:27.49. Habz took almost a second and a half off the previous record set in 2003, and ran the sixth fastest time ever over the distance. "It's incredible, there is no other word," Habz said. "I had come to this meeting with the goal of breaking the French record." Kenya's Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech came second with an impressive 3:27.72, breaking the world under-20 record. Another non-Diamond League race, the men's 3000m steeplechase, saw the return to the track of Ethiopia's Lamecha Girma after his heavy fall which left him unconscious at the Paris Olympics. Girma returned to the scene of his world record from 2023, and was happy to get the race, and win, under his belt. "This is a big thing for me today, especially after the Paris Olympics," Girma said. "It feels it was a long time ago, so this was very important for me. The legs not much of a problem, but I was a little scared. Now that the race is finished I feel much better."


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Mills runs second fastest British 1500m in Paris
George Mills ran the second fastest time by a Briton in the men's 1500m as he finished third at the Diamond League in beating Sir Mo Farah's long-standing British 5,000m record in Oslo last week, Mills, 26, again bettered Farah to climb to second in the all-time UK list with a time of three minutes 28.36 Josh Kerr has run the distance faster for Great Britain - in 3:27.79 at the 2024 Paris Habz won the race in front of his home crowd by clocking 3:27.49 - a meet record and French national record - while Kenya's Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech set a world junior record in second in the non-Diamond League race. Great Britain's Amy Hunt took second in the women's 200m with a season best 22.45 to finish behind American Anavia Battle while former world champion Dina Asher-Smith had to settle for sixth despite a quick Hunter Bell, targeting her second Diamond League win of the season, also finished sixth in the women's 1500m as Ireland's Sarah Healy came second with a personal best 3:57.15, behind Kenya's Nelly Diamond League will move to Eugene and Monaco next before the series visits the UK for a sold-out London Athletics Meet on 19 finals will take place in Zurich on 27 and 28 August - just over a fortnight before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.