The story in the Pokémon market right now isn’t modern product.

It isn’t grading.

It isn’t even new releases.

It’s vintage.

And for collectors who lived through the 25th Anniversary boom in 2021, the pattern is looking very familiar. The 30th Anniversary of Pokémon is still three months away.

The market isn’t waiting.

📈 Vintage Is Moving First

The clearest signal in the hobby right now is that serious collectors are positioning early.

Look at some of last week’s movers:

💥 Biggest Movers

• Rayquaza Gold Star: $9,300 (+29.65%)

• Shining Steelix 1st Edition: $1,420 (+651.65%)

• Tyranitar 127/128 1st Edition Holo: $261 (+335.98%)

• Metal Energy (Call of Legends): $238 (+497%)

• Psyduck EX Sandstorm Reverse Holo: $226 (+206.83%)

• Mew Expedition: $817 (+104%)

• Rocket’s Snorlax ex: $900 (+101.12%)

These cards don’t share a set.

They don’t share an era.

They don’t even share the same collector demographic.

What they share is something much more important:

Scarcity and nostalgia.

That’s exactly what tends to outperform when anniversary cycles begin.

⭐ Gold Stars Are Becoming the Story

The Gold Star market isn’t just rising.

It’s repricing.

Collectors are increasingly treating Gold Stars as the modern equivalent of trophy-level vintage pieces—cards with genuinely limited supply and growing demand.

Recent benchmark sales tell the story:

• Gold Star Charizard PSA 10 crossed $100,000

• Gold Star Rayquaza PSA 10 approached $50,000

• Gold Star Torchic PSA 10 reached $117,600

The common thread?

Tiny populations.

Many Gold Stars have PSA 10 populations below 100.

Some sit below 20.

When demand increases, there simply aren’t enough copies available to satisfy buyers.

The supply is fixed.

The collector base isn’t.

That’s a powerful combination heading into an anniversary year.

📊 Collectrics Supply Data Is Flashing Signals

The more interesting story may be underneath the price action.

Collectrics volume and supply metrics are showing concentrated buying rather than random speculation.

Cards seeing notable demand increases include:

• Jolteon ex #153: +14.5% volume

• Dragapult ex #165: +15.4% volume

• Slowpoke #116: +34.6% volume

• Pikachu GG30: +26.6% volume

• Lucario #174: +24.4% volume

That matters because volume usually moves before major price expansions.

Collectors are actively targeting specific cards.

That’s generally healthier than broad-market hype.

🔍 The Tight Supply List

If you’re looking for potential future movers, the supply data becomes even more interesting.

🚨 Very Tight Supply

• Duosion #119 — Population 63.6

• Iron Valiant ex #157 — Population 52.6

• Jolteon #116 — Population 15.2

The Jolteon data stands out.

Volume is down 57.5% while the population sits at roughly 15 graded copies.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the next sale goes higher.

But it does mean almost nobody is selling.

When demand returns, price discovery can happen very quickly.

That’s the exact setup experienced collectors tend to watch before major hobby events.

🎯 Cards We Still Like

Two names we’ve discussed previously continue to fit the thesis.

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex #231

• Price: $554.57

• Volume: +9.4%

• Population: 185

Magikarp #203

• Price: $390.28

• Volume: -7.7%

• Population: 121

Neither card is exploding higher today.

That’s actually part of the appeal.

Both still offer controlled supply, strong PSA premiums, and sustained collector demand.

Sometimes the best position is the one that doesn’t require chasing.

🎁 Friday’s Release: First Partner Series 2

The biggest new-product release of the week arrives Friday.

First Partner Illustration Collection Series 2

MSRP: $14.99

Each collection includes:

• One promo pack containing three Illustration Rare promos

• Two booster packs

• Sticker sheet

This wave focuses on the starters from:

🌱 Johto

• Chikorita

• Cyndaquil

• Totodile

🔥 Unova

• Snivy

• Tepig

• Oshawott

⚡ Galar

• Grookey

• Scorbunny

• Sobble

Series 1 sold out almost immediately after launch in March and quickly traded above retail on the secondary market.

There’s little reason to believe Series 2 behaves differently.

The Johto promos are likely to attract the strongest demand, particularly Cyndaquil and Totodile, given the nostalgia profile of today’s collector base.

If you find them at MSRP on Friday, they’re worth serious attention.

📅 What’s Ahead

The release calendar remains packed:

June 19

• First Partner Series 2

July 4–12

• Pitch Black Prereleases

July 17

• Pitch Black Retail Release

July 31

• Storm Emeralda

We’ve discussed this before, but the compressed release schedule matters.

When multiple products launch within weeks of each other, collector capital gets stretched.

Historically, the second set in a crowded release cycle often underperforms initially before recovering later.

That’s one reason Storm Emeralda and Mega Rayquaza ex remain our preferred target moving into August.

Patience usually gets rewarded.

🔮 Prediction: Follow Vintage

The biggest opportunity this week isn’t hidden.

It’s vintage. The 30th Anniversary cycle has a proven playbook. New collectors enter through modern product. Attention shifts to nostalgia.

Capital flows backward into scarce vintage cards. Prices rise. We’re still in the early innings of that process. If Gold Stars, Shining cards, and low-population grails are already moving in June, the months leading into September could get very interesting.

The anniversary cycle isn’t coming. It’s already here.

— The Bandicoots 🎴📈

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Three days. That’s how long Anthropic’s newest flagship models stayed online.

Claude Fable 5 launched June 9. By 5:21 PM ET on June 12, it was gone.

So was Mythos 5. And the reason wasn’t a server outage, a bug, or a failed deployment.

It was Washington.

🚨 Anthropic’s Biggest Launch Became Its Biggest Problem

Anthropic introduced two major new AI systems last week.

Claude Fable 5 was released publicly.

Claude Mythos 5 remained restricted to Project Glasswing, Anthropic’s frontier-model program.

Then everything changed Friday afternoon.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick issued an export-control directive prohibiting foreign nationals from accessing either model, whether they were located inside or outside the United States.

Anthropic faced a practical problem.

The company concluded it could not reliably distinguish foreign nationals from U.S. users in real time across its global customer base.

So rather than selectively block access, it shut both models down entirely.

For everyone.

Worldwide.

That’s a remarkable outcome for products that had been available for less than a week.

🤖 The Jailbreak That Started It

According to the Commerce Department, another company reported a successful jailbreak that allegedly unlocked advanced cybersecurity capabilities within Mythos 5.

The government’s position was straightforward:

If those capabilities could be accessed through a public-facing system, the models represented a potential national-security concern.

Anthropic sees the situation very differently.

The company described the incident as narrow and highly specific rather than a broad defeat of its safety systems.

Even more notably, Anthropic argued that the same jailbreak reportedly works against OpenAI’s GPT-5.5.

OpenAI faces no comparable restrictions.

Anthropic publicly called the government’s action a “misunderstanding” and warned that applying this standard consistently across the industry would effectively halt frontier-model releases altogether.

As of Monday morning, neither Fable 5 nor Mythos 5 has a confirmed return date.

🏛️ This Didn’t Start Last Week

The shutdown didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Anthropic and Washington have been moving toward confrontation for months.

Back in March, the Department of Defense classified Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” an unusually aggressive designation that forced defense contractors to certify they weren’t using Claude models in certain military workflows.

Anthropic immediately challenged the designation in court.

That lawsuit remains active.

Reports surrounding the dispute suggested the disagreement centered on Anthropic’s refusal to support certain surveillance and autonomous military-use cases without restrictions.

Whether those reports prove fully accurate or not, Friday’s export-control order makes one thing clear:

The relationship between Anthropic and the federal government is no longer merely tense.

It’s adversarial.

💰 Why Investors Suddenly Care

The timing couldn’t be worse.

Anthropic confidentially filed its S-1 on June 1.

Ten days later, the very models expected to showcase the company’s technological leadership were pulled offline.

That’s not just a product problem.

It’s an IPO problem.

Investors evaluating a company reportedly targeting a valuation near $965 billion now have a new question to answer:

Can Anthropic freely deploy its most advanced models?

Last week made that question significantly harder to answer.

For AI companies, regulatory risk just moved from a footnote to the investment thesis.

📈 Meanwhile, OpenAI Is Headed for Wall Street

While Anthropic spent the weekend fighting regulators, OpenAI spent it preparing for public markets.

The company confirmed its confidential S-1 filing on June 8 and is reportedly targeting a September 2026 listing.

Expected valuation estimates range from $852 billion to $1 trillion, placing it among the most anticipated IPOs in market history.

The numbers are staggering.

📊 OpenAI by the Numbers

• Annualized Revenue: $25 billion

• Weekly Active Users: 900 million

• Projected 2026 Operating Loss: $14 billion

• Projected Cash Burn: $27 billion

• Lead Banks: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi, and JPMorgan

The growth story is obvious.

The profitability story is not.

OpenAI is currently spending money faster than almost any company in modern technology history.

Wall Street is about to decide whether AI infrastructure spending at this scale is visionary—or unsustainable.

And unlike private investors, public markets don’t grade on potential forever.

📱 Google’s Opening

The biggest winner from Anthropic’s weekend may be a company that had nothing to do with it.

Google.

Gemini 3.5 Pro is reportedly approaching launch with a 2-million-token context window and upgraded Deep Think reasoning capabilities.

Under normal circumstances, Google would be entering a crowded race.

Instead, one of its primary competitors just had its most advanced models removed from the market.

Google didn’t create the opening.

But it would be shocking if it didn’t take advantage of it.

🔮 The Real Story

For years, the biggest question in AI was who would build the best model.

That question is evolving.

Now investors have a second question:

Who will be allowed to deploy it?

Anthropic and OpenAI are both racing toward public markets.

Governments are becoming increasingly involved in frontier-model oversight.

Export controls, national-security reviews, supply-chain designations, and regulatory intervention are no longer hypothetical risks.

They’re active variables.

SpaceX just proved investors are willing to pour money into companies shaping the next technological era.

The market clearly has an appetite for AI.

What became less clear this weekend is where Washington draws the line.

And for every AI company preparing to go public, that may be the most important question of all.

— The Bandicoots 📱🔌

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After 53 years of heartbreak, near-misses, bad contracts, coaching changes, draft busts, and enough disappointment to fuel an entire generation of sports radio, the New York Knicks are NBA champions.

Read that again.

The New York Knicks are NBA champions.

The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 on Saturday night in Game 5 to win the NBA Finals 4-1 and capture their first championship since 1973.

And when the moment arrived, the ball was exactly where every Knicks fan wanted it.

In Jalen Brunson’s hands.

🏀🔥 Brunson Delivers a Finals Performance for the Ages

Jalen Brunson finished Game 5 with 45 points, setting a new franchise record for points in an NBA Finals game.

The previous record?

Willis Reed’s 38-point performance in the 1970 NBA Finals.

For a franchise built on legends, Brunson just wrote his name next to the biggest one.

With the Knicks trailing by 16 points, Brunson once again dragged New York back into the game. He scored 13 consecutive Knicks points in the fourth quarter, turning a championship-clinching game into his personal masterpiece.

Then came the shot.

With just over a minute remaining and the game tied, Brunson floated a runner over the Spurs defense and gave New York a lead it would never surrender.

The Garden may have been 1,800 miles away.

The roar probably reached it anyway.

Brunson was unanimously named Finals MVP.

Deservedly so.

After the final buzzer, he summed up what every Knicks fan was feeling.

“I have no words. It’s everything I ever dreamed of.”

💥 The Comeback Team

The defining image of this championship run won’t be a dunk.

It won’t be a trophy presentation.

It won’t even be a parade.

It’ll be a scoreboard.

Because this Knicks team simply refused to acknowledge one.

Every victory in the Finals came after a double-digit deficit.

Game 1: Down 14. Won by 10.

Game 2: Trailing in the final two minutes. Won by one.

Game 4: Down 29. Won by one.

Game 5: Down 16. Won by four.

That’s four wins.

Four double-digit comebacks. At some point, it stopped feeling like luck and started feeling inevitable. Thee championship.

🚨 The Moment We’ll Never Forget

Game 4 already belongs in New York sports mythology.

Trailing by 29 points, the Knicks completed the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.

Down 106-105 in the final seconds, Brunson launched a deep three.

It missed.

Then came chaos.

OG Anunoby flew in between three Spurs defenders, tipped the ball through the rim with 1.2 seconds left, and Madison Square Garden nearly detached itself from Manhattan.

One possession later, Anunoby blocked De’Aaron Fox’s final attempt.

Final score: 107-106.

The biggest comeback in NBA Finals history.

The biggest playoff comeback in Knicks history.

A moment that will be replayed forever.

🌟 Credit to San Antonio

The Spurs aren’t leaving this series with a trophy, but they’re leaving with a future.

Victor Wembanyama showed flashes of why he’s already one of the league’s most terrifying players. He averaged over 24 points and double-digit rebounds throughout the series and spent portions of Game 5 looking completely unstoppable, including a stretch where he recorded five blocks early and turned the paint into restricted airspace.

But New York’s defense gradually wore him down.

Stephon Castle looked every bit like a future star.

And first-year Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson earned respect throughout the postseason.

After Game 5, Johnson delivered the simplest and most honest assessment of the series:

“We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won.”

Sometimes the truth doesn’t need extra analysis.

🧡💙 Mike Brown Ends 53 Years of Waiting

Think about this.

Mike Brown became the 24th Knicks head coach since the franchise’s last championship.

He’s also the first one to bring the trophy back.

This wasn’t a one-man operation.

Karl-Anthony Towns battled through foul trouble all series and fouled out in Game 5.

OG Anunoby delivered the signature moment.

Josh Hart did Josh Hart things.

Mikal Bridges defended everything that moved.

Mitchell Robinson controlled the glass.

Jose Alvarado somehow became a fourth-quarter cult hero.

This roster wasn’t built around one superstar.

It was built around fit, toughness, defense, and belief.

Then Brunson elevated all of it.

🎉 Thursday Belongs to New York

The celebration now moves home.

The Knicks’ championship parade will take place Thursday, June 18, at 10 AM, beginning at Battery Park and traveling north along Broadway through the legendary Canyon of Heroes before concluding at City Hall.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the route and will host a championship celebration and Key to the City ceremony.

City Hall and municipal buildings across all five boroughs will be illuminated in blue and orange.

The last men’s New York sports team to receive a Canyon of Heroes parade was the Giants in 2012.

The last championship parade of any kind was the New York Liberty’s WNBA title celebration in 2024.

Now it’s the Knicks’ turn.

And judging by the reaction across the city this weekend, lower Manhattan might need extra barricades.

🔮 Final Thoughts

For decades, Knicks fans inherited stories.

Willis Reed. Walt Frazier. The Garden in the 70s. The 1990s battles.

The almost-runs. The what-ifs. Now they have a championship of their own.

A generation that spent years hearing about 1973 finally gets its own date to remember.

June 13, 2026.

The night the drought ended. The night Jalen Brunson became a New York sports legend. And the night the Knicks finally climbed back to the top of the basketball world.

Clear your schedule. Thursday is going to be absolute chaos.

— The Bandicoots 🏀🔥

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Last week felt like three months compressed into three trading days.

• SpaceX delivered the biggest IPO in U.S. history.

• Oracle reported one of the strongest quarters in company history.

• Adobe beat estimates and raised guidance.

Two of those stocks got hammered. One became a $2.1 trillion company.

Welcome to 2026.

🚀💥 Biggest Gainer: SpaceX (+19%)

Friday belonged to SpaceX.

The company priced its historic IPO at $135 per share, raised $75 billion, and officially became the largest public offering ever recorded.

Not Saudi Aramco.

Not Alibaba.

Not Meta.

SpaceX.

Trading was delayed 30 minutes due to overwhelming institutional demand, which is Wall Street’s version of the club being too crowded to open the doors.

When trading finally began:

• Open: $150

• Intraday High: $176.52

• Close: $160.95

• Day-One Gain: +19%

The result?

A market capitalization of roughly $2.1 trillion, instantly making SpaceX one of the largest companies in America.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk crossed another absurd milestone as his net worth briefly exceeded $1 trillion during Friday’s session.

That’s not a typo.

Retail investors lucky enough to secure IPO allocations through Robinhood, Fidelity, or Schwab got a first-day return most investors wait years to see.

The stock didn’t just debut.

It launched.

Pun intended.

😬 Biggest Loser: Oracle (-10%)

Now for the part of the market that makes absolutely no sense until it suddenly does.

Oracle reported what looked like a monster quarter.

📊 The Good Stuff

• Revenue: $19.18B vs. $19.09B expected

• EPS: $2.11 vs. $1.96 expected

• OCI Revenue Growth: +93% YoY

• Remaining Performance Obligation: $638B

• Largest quarterly backlog increase in company history

By most standards, that’s a mic-drop earnings report.

Instead, shares fell roughly 10%.

Why?

Because investors stopped reading the top half of the earnings release and started reading the bottom half.

💸 The Problem

Oracle’s AI infrastructure ambitions are becoming incredibly expensive.

Management disclosed:

• FY2026 CapEx: $55.7B (+162%)

• Free Cash Flow: -$23.7B

• Additional Capital Raise Planned: $40B

• FY2027 Planned CapEx: $70B

Bulls see a company racing to satisfy overwhelming AI demand.

Bears see a company borrowing faster than revenue is materializing.

Both sides may be right.

Wall Street chose the bear case last week.

For now.

🎨😬 Adobe Beats... Again. And Falls... Again.

Adobe delivered what analysts typically call a “beat-and-raise.”

The market called it a sell.

📊 The Numbers

• Revenue: $6.62B

• EPS: $5.96

• Full-Year Guidance: Raised

Normally that’s enough to spark a rally.

Instead, Adobe dropped more than 6% and hit a fresh 52-week low.

Why Investors Hit Sell

Two issues overshadowed the quarter:

1️⃣ Leadership Uncertainty

CFO Dan Durn is leaving for Marvell Technology.

That follows CEO Shantanu Narayen’s announcement earlier this year that he’ll step down after nearly two decades leading the company.

Two executive transitions in three months?

Institutional investors hate uncertainty almost as much as they hate missing guidance.

2️⃣ The AI Monetization Question

Adobe continues prioritizing user growth over immediate monetization.

Translation:

They’re keeping products affordable and delaying price increases while competitors aggressively monetize AI features.

Long term? Smart.

Short term? Investors want proof.

The result is a stock trading at valuation levels that would’ve seemed impossible two years ago.

Either Wall Street is dramatically underestimating Adobe...

or Adobe is dramatically overestimating its strategy.

We’ll get another clue when Q3 arrives in September.

🏛️ This Week’s Main Event: The Fed

Forget earnings.

Forget IPOs.

Everything this week revolves around one building in Washington.

The FOMC meeting concludes Tuesday at 2 PM ET, marking Kevin Warsh’s first major policy decision as the 17th Chair of the Federal Reserve.

Current market expectations:

• 65% probability of a hold

• Target range remains 3.50%–3.75%

The real story won’t be the rate decision.

It’ll be the tone.

Warsh is widely expected to move the Fed away from the easing bias that defined the later Powell years and toward a more neutral stance.

Translation:

The market may care more about what gets said than what gets done.

Watch the updated dot plot carefully.

Any upward revisions to projected 2027 or 2028 rates could trigger a hawkish reaction regardless of Tuesday’s actual decision.

🔮 This Week’s Predictions

📈 Predicted Gainer: Nvidia (NVDA)

Nvidia fell nearly 6% last week despite no company-specific negative news.

Meanwhile:

• SpaceX IPO demand exploded

• Oracle reported 93% OCI growth

• Broadcom posted another massive AI quarter

Every one of those stories points toward the same theme:

AI infrastructure demand remains incredibly strong.

If the Fed delivers a calm hold and a stable dot plot, Nvidia could quickly recover last week’s decline.

📉 Predicted Loser: Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla enters the week facing pressure from an unexpected source:

SpaceX.

Last week, Cathie Wood’s ARK reportedly sold roughly $443 million of Tesla shares while building a substantial SpaceX position.

That’s not profit-taking.

That’s capital rotation.

And unlike a one-day trade, that rotation could continue for weeks as institutional investors decide where they want their Musk exposure.

Fed-week volatility only adds another reason for large funds to reduce risk.

📊 Final Thoughts

Last week was a perfect reminder that markets don’t reward good news.

They reward expectations.

SpaceX exceeded them.

Oracle scared investors despite beating them.

Adobe raised guidance and still got punished.

Now Wall Street turns its attention to the Fed, where one sentence from Kevin Warsh could matter more than every earnings report we’ve discussed.

Keep your watchlist fresh.

Keep your caffeine stocked.

And remember: sometimes the biggest move comes from the stock that did absolutely nothing wrong.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

— The Bandicoots 📉📈

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Today is one of those days.

Pokémon Center’s Pitch Black preorder drop is officially live, and if you’ve survived a modern Pokémon release before, you already know the drill:

The queue opens.

Discord explodes.

Links circulate.

Everything disappears.

And half the hobby ends up paying reseller prices by dinner.

Let’s avoid that outcome.

💰 MSRP vs Reality

The reason collectors care so much about today’s drop comes down to one thing:

The spread between retail and secondary pricing is already enormous.

Elite Trainer Box

• MSRP: $59.99

• Includes:

  • 9 booster packs

  • Zarude Illustration Rare promo

  • 65 sleeves

  • 40 Energy cards

  • Dice and accessories

Booster Bundle

• MSRP: $26.94

• Current retail markup examples approaching $60

Booster Box

• MSRP: $161.64

• Secondary preorder listings approaching $300

Read that last number again.

Buying direct at MSRP versus paying nearly $300 elsewhere is the difference between starting a collection and funding someone else’s.

🌑 Why Pitch Black Is Getting So Much Attention

Pitch Black is the English adaptation of Japan’s Abyss Eye and represents the fifth expansion of the Mega Evolution era.

The chase card lineup is compact and powerful:

Featured Cards

• Mega Darkrai ex

• Mega Zeraora ex

• Mega Chandelure ex

• Mega Excadrill ex

Rarity Breakdown

• 6 Special Illustration Rares

• 11 Illustration Rares

• 18 Ultra Rares

• Roughly 115-card set

The star of the show is unquestionably Mega Darkrai ex.

The Special Illustration Rare version became one of the most discussed Pokémon cards of the year the moment artwork previews surfaced.

Darkrai collectors showed up.

Competitive players showed up.

Artwork collectors showed up.

That’s usually a sign demand is coming from multiple directions simultaneously.

Those are the sets that tend to stay expensive.

📈 Why The Booster Box Is The Best Position

Pitch Black shares the same MSRP booster box price as Chaos Rising.

The difference is in how the chase cards are distributed.

Chaos Rising spread its premium hits across a broader card pool.

Pitch Black concentrates demand around fewer top-end cards.

That means fewer premium pulls per box relative to overall demand.

Collectors love hearing “tight chase structure.”

Investors usually love it even more.

If sealed product appreciates after release, the booster box is likely the first place that pressure appears.

🏴‍☠️ One Piece OP-16 Arrives Friday

While Pokémon dominates today, One Piece players have their own major release around the corner.

OP-16: Time of Battle

Retail Launch:
June 12

Key Highlights:

• First three-Manga-Rare set in One Piece history

• Marineford Luffy prerelease winner promo

• New Portgas D. Ace Leader

• New Marshall D. Teach Leader

Early prerelease pull data has already started circulating through community channels, and collectors are closely watching where prices settle before retail inventory floods the market.

The extra time between Japanese and English releases has provided unusually strong price discovery heading into launch.

For once, buyers aren’t flying completely blind.

⚡ Storm Emeralda Is Right Behind It

If Pitch Black is today’s story, Storm Emeralda is waiting around the corner.

Launching July 31 and headlined by Mega Rayquaza ex, the set arrives just two weeks after Pitch Black.

Historically, compressed release schedules create a familiar pattern:

• Set #1 absorbs collector attention

• Set #2 launches softer

• Singles dip

• Market catches up later

If history repeats, Storm Emeralda’s early singles market may offer better opportunities than launch-week hype suggests.

Mega Rayquaza collectors should be paying attention.

🔮 Looking Ahead

The road to September is packed.

We’re staring at:

• Pitch Black

• OP-16 Time of Battle

• Storm Emeralda

• PSA grading bottlenecks

• Anniversary product releases

And it all starts today.

Final Thoughts

Every major Pokémon release creates the same question:

“Should I wait?”

For sealed product at MSRP, history usually answers that question pretty quickly.

Today’s opportunity isn’t finding the perfect card.

It’s avoiding paying twice as much for the chance to pull it.

Get in the queue.

Be patient.

Don’t click early.

And may the Poké Gods bless your checkout screen.

— The Bandicoots

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WWDC 2026 wasn’t about flashy hardware.

It wasn’t about a surprise headset. And it definitely wasn’t about a foldable iPhone.

Instead, Apple spent two hours doing something it hasn’t always done successfully in recent years:

Delivering.

After years of delays, missed timelines, and AI comparisons that usually ended with someone mentioning OpenAI or Google, Apple finally shipped the feature users have been waiting for.

Siri AI is here.

And Tim Cook chose that moment to say goodbye.

📱 Siri AI Has Officially Entered the Chat

For two years, Siri felt like the kid who forgot the group project while everyone else was already presenting.

Monday changed that.

Apple’s rebuilt Siri now runs on Google’s Gemini models through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, creating the company’s most capable assistant ever.

The new Siri includes:

• Full conversation history

• Chat-style interface

• Dynamic Island integration

• Real-time screen awareness

• Camera-based visual intelligence

• Cross-app context understanding

Most importantly?

It can actually understand what’s happening on your device without forcing users to explain every detail manually.

That’s the feature Apple users have been asking for since AI assistants became mainstream.

The company also emphasized privacy repeatedly throughout the keynote, positioning its cloud architecture as the major differentiator against competitors that rely more heavily on user data for training.

In classic Apple fashion, the message was simple:

“You can have AI without handing over your digital diary.”

⚠️ Not Every iPhone Gets the Good Stuff

There’s one catch.

Actually, several.

Full Siri AI support requires newer hardware.

Supported devices include:

• iPhone 16 lineup

• iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max

• M1 Macs and newer

• M1 iPads and newer

• Vision Pro

• Apple Watch Series 10

• Apple Watch Ultra 2

• Apple Watch SE 3 (paired with supported iPhone)

Meanwhile, standard iPhone 15 owners and older devices still receive iOS 27 but won’t get the flagship AI experience.

Translation:

Your phone still works.

Apple just politely informed you it’s no longer invited to the AI party.

💻 macOS Golden Gate Ends the Intel Era

Apple’s newest desktop operating system officially has a name:

macOS Golden Gate

Unlike previous redesigns, this update focuses on refinement rather than reinvention.

Highlights include:

• Expanded Liquid Glass design language

• Adjustable opacity controls

• Faster system search

• Improved Spotlight indexing

• Faster Photos and Mail search functionality

The biggest news, however, happens behind the scenes.

Intel support is officially gone.

macOS Golden Gate runs exclusively on Apple Silicon.

The transition that began with the M1 chip in 2020 is finally complete.

For longtime Mac users, this feels a bit like watching the final scene of a movie franchise.

An era quietly ended.

⚡ iOS 27 Might Be Faster Than Its Features

Apple made an unusual announcement during the keynote:

Nobody gets left behind.

Every device that ran iOS 26 will run iOS 27.

That means support remains intact all the way back to the iPhone 11.

Even better, Apple claims measurable performance gains:

• Up to 30% faster app launches

• Improved responsiveness

• Faster search indexing

• Better background processing

Meanwhile, AirPods finally receive a customizable EQ.

Only took a decade.

Somewhere, an audio enthusiast just stopped screaming into the void.

🔌 The Features Apple Didn’t Show

The most interesting keynote moments are often the products that never appear on stage.

This year’s notable absences:

Foldable iPhone

Still expected for 2027.

Not mentioned once.

AirPods Ultra

Rumored infrared camera-equipped AirPods remain in testing.

Also absent.

New Hardware

None.

Zero.

Not a single device announcement.

That wasn’t accidental.

Apple clearly wanted WWDC 2026 to focus on fixing promises rather than making new ones.

After previous Siri delays, the company wasn’t interested in selling dreams.

It wanted to show receipts.

🔮 What Happens Next?

Developer betas are available now.

Public betas arrive in July.

That’s when the real test begins.

AI demos are easy.

Daily use is hard.

The biggest question facing Apple isn’t whether Siri AI looked impressive on stage.

It’s whether Siri can finally become the assistant users trust every day instead of the one they accidentally activate while trying to adjust volume.

The answer arrives next month.

And for the first time in years, Apple might actually be ready for the comparison.

🍎 One More Thing…

Tim Cook’s farewell ended up feeling a lot like the keynote itself.

Quiet.

Measured.

Deliberate.

No dramatic announcement.

No emotional montage.

Just a CEO who spent fifteen years turning Apple into one of the most valuable companies in history and then handing over the keys.

John Ternus officially takes over September 1.

The AI era begins.

And for the first time since 2011, someone other than Tim Cook will be steering Apple.

Final Thoughts

WWDC 2026 wasn’t Apple’s flashiest event.

It may have been one of its most important.

Siri AI finally arrived. Intel Macs officially reached the finish line. iPhones got faster. Privacy remained front and center.

Most importantly, Apple stopped talking about what was coming and started shipping what was promised.

After the last two years, that might have been the biggest announcement of all.

Keep your devices charged, your beta expectations reasonable, and your Siri jokes on standby.

The next chapter of Apple officially starts now.

— The Bandicoots 📱🔌

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The Spurs grabbed Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday night, beating the Knicks 115-111 at Madison Square Garden and cutting New York’s series lead to 2-1.

Victor Wembanyama was dirty and the officiating story became even bigger.

And now Game 4 feels less like a basketball game and more like a referendum on consistency.

🏀 Wemby Was Incredible

Let’s start with the obvious.

Wembanyama delivered the best performance of the Finals so far:

• 32 points

• 8 rebounds

• 6 assists

• 3 blocks

• 2 steals

The 22-year-old continued adding pages to what is already becoming one of the most absurd playoff résumés we’ve ever seen.

Stephon Castle chipped in 23 points, San Antonio controlled the fourth quarter, and the Spurs walked out of Madison Square Garden with new life in the series.

On paper, that’s the story.

In reality, it became something else.

😬 The Play Everyone Is Talking About

Midway through the first quarter, Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson got tangled up away from the ball.

The replay was difficult to ignore.

Wembanyama extended his arm and shoved Brunson in the back of the head and neck area, sending the Knicks star to the floor.

No whistle.

No review.

No stoppage.

Play continued.

The Spurs eventually won by four.

Then came Tuesday.

NBA Head of Officiating Monty McCutchen appeared on ESPN and acknowledged what fans, players, and coaches had already concluded:

The foul was missed.

That’s where things got interesting.

Because after reviewing the play, the league declined to upgrade the incident to a flagrant foul.

The NBA admitted the mistake.

Then left the result unchanged.

🔥 Why The Decision Matters

This isn’t just about one missed whistle.

It’s about postseason consequences.

Wembanyama entered Game 3 carrying two flagrant foul points from an earlier Flagrant 2 assessed during the Western Conference playoffs.

Under NBA postseason rules:

• 4 flagrant points = automatic suspension

• Wembanyama currently has 2

Had Monday’s play been upgraded to a Flagrant 1, he would’ve moved to three points.

One more similar incident during the Finals would place him directly on suspension watch.

Instead?

He remains at two.

The league effectively acknowledged the foul while removing any disciplinary impact.

That distinction has become the center of the debate.

⚖️ The Consistency Problem

The frustration from Knicks fans isn’t necessarily that officials missed a call.

Missed calls happen.

The frustration comes from comparing what was called versus what wasn’t.

The game’s turning point arrived in the third quarter when Jalen Brunson was assessed a Flagrant 1 after closing out on a three-point shooter and violating the landing-space rule.

The result:

• Three-point basket counted

• Additional free throw awarded

• Spurs swung a four-point deficit into a lead

San Antonio never trailed again.

Meanwhile, a separate play involving direct contact to Brunson’s head and neck area resulted in no foul, no review, and no flagrant assessment.

Whether those situations are technically identical isn’t really the point.

The optics are brutal.

📣 The Free Throw Debate Isn’t Going Away

Adding fuel to the fire was the second-half whistle disparity.

According to Knicks head coach Mike Brown, San Antonio attempted 24 free throws after halftime.

New York attempted eight.

Now, free throw disparities alone don’t prove officiating bias.

Some teams attack more aggressively. Some foul more often.

That’s basketball.

But when that disparity arrives in the same game where the league later admits it missed a key foul involving the winning team’s superstar?

Fans are going to connect dots.

Fairly or unfairly.

🔥 Tonight’s Real Matchup: Knicks vs. Spurs vs. The Whistle

Game 4 tips off tonight at Madison Square Garden.

The basketball stakes are obvious:

• Knicks win → 3-1 series lead

• Spurs win → Series tied 2-2

But the officiating stakes may be just as significant.

Every call involving Wembanyama will be scrutinized.

Every replay will be dissected.

Every physical exchange will be viewed through the lens of Monday night’s controversy.

The NBA may have hoped Tuesday’s review would close the conversation.

Instead, it guaranteed that everyone will be watching even more closely tonight.

🔮 Series Vibe

The Finals suddenly feel different.

Not because the Spurs won.

Because the conversation shifted from basketball to accountability.

Wembanyama remains the most impactful player in the series, and San Antonio’s margin for error without him remains razor thin. That reality only amplifies the scrutiny surrounding every officiating decision involving the league’s biggest young superstar.

The Knicks still control the series.

The Spurs have momentum.

And tonight’s crew might be under more pressure than either team.

Final Take

The NBA’s message was unusual:

“We missed the foul.”

“But we’re not changing anything.”

Whether that’s the correct interpretation of the rules or not, it has left both fanbases with plenty to argue about heading into Game 4.

One thing is certain.

If tonight comes down to another controversial whistle, nobody will be talking about box scores tomorrow.

They’ll be talking about consistency.

— The Bandicoots 🏀🔥

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This week has the energy of a season finale nobody was prepared for.

Over the last 24 hours, the U.S. launched strikes against Iranian targets, inflation expectations climbed ahead of today’s CPI report, Oracle became the most important earnings release on Wall Street, and investors are preparing for what could become the largest IPO debut in U.S. history.

If markets feel nervous, that’s because they have a lot to digest.

📊 Markets Hit by Geopolitical Shock

Stocks pulled back Tuesday after reports confirmed U.S. military strikes against Iranian targets overnight.

The immediate reaction was predictable:

• Oil prices moved higher

• The S&P 500 slipped

• The Nasdaq gave back part of Monday’s recovery

• Treasury markets began pricing in a more complicated inflation outlook

The key development isn’t necessarily today’s oil price.

It’s the futures curve.

Markets are increasingly pricing a prolonged risk environment around the Strait of Hormuz rather than a short-lived geopolitical spike. That’s Wall Street’s way of saying investors believe energy disruptions could stick around longer than initially expected.

And that’s exactly where inflation becomes the next problem.

🔥 CPI Day: The Most Important Number of the Week

Today’s May CPI report lands at 8:30 AM ET and could reshape expectations for next week’s Fed meeting.

Current expectations:

• Headline CPI: 4.2% YoY

• Previous reading: 3.8% YoY

• Core CPI: 2.9% YoY

• Monthly CPI increase: 0.5%

The headline number is grabbing attention, but the market is really focused on core inflation.

Why?

Because energy-driven inflation is one thing.

Energy inflation spreading into transportation, warehousing, retail, food, and manufacturing is something entirely different.

Gasoline prices have surged, and higher fuel costs eventually find their way into nearly every product consumers buy.

If core CPI comes in hotter than expected, investors may have to seriously consider the possibility of another rate hike.

The market entered the morning already assigning a high probability to tighter policy. A hotter-than-expected report could push those odds even higher before next week’s FOMC meeting.

💥 Oracle’s $553 Billion Question

After the closing bell, all eyes turn to Oracle.

Consensus estimates call for:

• $1.96 EPS

• $19.1 billion revenue

• Roughly 20% year-over-year growth

But revenue isn’t the headline.

Oracle’s massive $553 billion Remaining Performance Obligation (RPO) backlog is.

That number exploded higher thanks to AI cloud contracts and has become the centerpiece of the entire Oracle bull thesis.

Here’s the challenge:

A giant backlog only matters if it converts into actual revenue.

Tonight’s earnings call is less about what Oracle earned last quarter and more about whether management can prove that AI demand is becoming real dollars on the income statement.

The options market is pricing a roughly 12% move after earnings.

Given Oracle’s history, don’t be surprised if reality ends up much bigger.

📱 Tech Watch: Adobe Faces the AI Pressure Test

Adobe reports tomorrow, and unlike Oracle, expectations aren’t exactly soaring.

The company continues to dominate creative software, but the rise of AI-generated images, video, and design tools has investors questioning future growth rates.

The debate isn’t whether Adobe survives.

The debate is whether premium software pricing remains sustainable when AI can increasingly perform similar tasks at a fraction of the cost.

That’s a much tougher conversation.

🚀 The Biggest IPO Ever Arrives Friday

Friday brings perhaps the most anticipated market event of the year:

SpaceX IPO (SPCX)

Expected valuation:
$1.75 Trillion

Estimated public float:
3-4% of shares

That’s a potentially dangerous combination.

Small float plus enormous demand often creates extreme volatility during a stock’s first few trading sessions.

Investors hoping for a smooth debut may want to remember that scarcity tends to create fireworks.

And Wall Street loves fireworks.

Until it doesn’t.

🔮 Looking Ahead

The next 72 hours could determine market direction for the rest of June.

Investors are juggling:

• Rising Middle East tensions

• A critical inflation report

• Oracle’s AI conversion story

• Adobe’s AI competition challenge

• An ECB rate decision

• Producer inflation data

• The largest IPO in U.S. history

And then comes the Fed.

With six days remaining before the June meeting, policymakers may be walking into one of the most complicated setups of the year.

The market wanted clarity.

Instead, it got geopolitics, inflation, AI earnings, and a trillion-dollar IPO all at once.

Wall Street’s summer just got interesting.

Final Thoughts

Markets can usually focus on one major story at a time.

This week handed investors seven.

Whether it’s inflation, oil, AI infrastructure, or SpaceX mania, the common theme is uncertainty—and uncertainty creates opportunity for those willing to stay disciplined.

Keep your watchlist updated, your risk management tighter than usual, and maybe keep an extra cup of coffee nearby.

The next few trading sessions could get wild.

— The Bandicoots 📉📈

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Six days. That’s all it took.

PSA’s Value tier pause is less than a week old, and the market is already telling collectors exactly where the money wants to go.

The cards moving right now aren’t random. They’re the cards where the grading math still works.

And that’s becoming a very important distinction.

📈 The Market Has Already Chosen Its Winners

Monday’s movers all share the same profile:

• High raw value

• Strong collector demand

• Massive PSA premium

• Grading economics that still justify Standard submissions

Leading today’s gainers:

⚡ Pikachu ex #276 (+$29.75)

👻 Mega Gengar ex #284 (+$14.82)

✨ Mew ex #232 (+$4.99)

These aren’t casual binder cards anymore.

Collectors now face a simple choice:

Pay PSA’s higher Standard rates or wait until October.

The cards seeing demand are the ones valuable enough to make that decision easy.

🏆 The PSA Premium Leaderboard

The biggest story isn’t raw prices.

It’s the gap between raw and graded.

That gap is where collectors make—or lose—money.

Top PSA Premiums

🌙 Umbreon ex #161

• Raw: $1,489

• PSA Value: $5,898

• Premium: +$4,408

• Multiplier: 300%

🐟 Magikarp #203

• Raw: $387

• PSA Value: $4,647

• Premium: +$4,260

• Multiplier: 1,100%

🔥 Mega Charizard Y ex #294

• Raw: $649

• PSA Value: $3,725

• Premium: +$3,076

• Multiplier: 470%

🥷 Mega Greninja ex #116

• Raw: $394

• PSA Value: $3,029

• Premium: +$2,635

• Multiplier: 670%

✨ Mew ex #232

• Raw: $890

• PSA Value: $3,479

• Premium: +$2,589

• Multiplier: 290%

These are exactly the kinds of cards likely to attract grading submissions even with higher fees.

When a card offers thousands of dollars in upside, an extra grading fee becomes background noise.

💥 The Sleeper Nobody Is Talking About

Every market cycle has a card quietly compounding while everyone chases the obvious names.

This year’s candidate?

Rosa’s Encouragement #123

• Raw: $70

• PSA Value: $913

• Premium: +$842

• Multiplier: 1,190%

The raw entry point remains accessible.

The PSA upside remains enormous.

And low-pop trainer cards continue to attract long-term collector demand.

This isn’t the flashiest card on the board.

That’s often exactly why it works.

📊 Why The PSA Pause Matters More Than People Think

Most collectors are viewing the Value tier pause as an inconvenience.

The market is treating it as a supply event.

Here’s why:

When fewer cards get graded, PSA populations grow more slowly.

When populations grow more slowly, premium compression slows down.

That’s especially important for cards like Magikarp #203, where a massive portion of the value comes from scarcity and grade separation.

An 1,100% PSA premium isn’t guaranteed forever.

But a grading bottleneck buys those premiums time.

And time is often all scarcity needs.

🎉 The 30th Anniversary Window Is Closing

September 16 isn’t just another release date.

It’s the first simultaneous worldwide Pokémon launch in history.

No Japanese head start.

No early market pricing.

No three-week preview period.

Everyone enters price discovery at the same time.

That’s a massive change.

Historically, collectors could use Japanese market data to estimate English demand before release.

This time?

Everyone is flying blind.

👀 Early Targets Before September

Based on community sentiment, three cards are already separating themselves from the pack.

Most-Wanted Cards So Far

🧠 Mewtwo ex FUR

✨ Mew ex FUR

🔥 Base Set Charizard 30th Anniversary Reprint

The Mew and Mewtwo cards benefit from two powerful catalysts:

• New Futuristic Rare rarity

• Artwork by YOSHIROTTEN

The artist has never worked on Pokémon TCG before, yet social media engagement around these reveals has been enormous.

That’s the type of attention that often translates into grading volume and long-term demand.

📦 The Summer Release Gauntlet

Before September arrives, collectors face two major Pokémon releases in two weeks.

July 17 — Pitch Black

Key cards include:

• Mega Darkrai ex

• Mega Zeraora ex

• Mega Chandelure ex

• Mega Excadrill ex

Bonus:

🌿 Zarude Illustration Rare ETB Promo

July 31 — Storm Emeralda

Featuring:

🐉 Mega Rayquaza ex

Historically, when major sets launch in rapid succession, the second release often receives less immediate attention.

That creates opportunities.

If the pattern repeats, Mega Rayquaza ex singles may become one of the most attractive early-buy targets of the summer.

🔮 Market Movers To Watch This Week

Giratina VSTAR #GG69

• Raw Price: +1.2%

• 30-Day Market Value: +19.2%

• Volume: +24.1%

Arceus VSTAR #GG70

• Raw Price: +1.8%

• 30-Day Market Value: +14.3%

Both cards already possess strong grading histories.

Both are seeing increased volume.

Both benefit from tighter grading supply.

That’s usually a combination worth paying attention to.

🏴‍☠️ One Piece Watch

One Piece OP-16 officially reaches retail shelves this Friday.

The market now has a full week of prerelease information to digest.

Key storyline:

⚓ Admiral Super Parallels

And for the first time:

📖 Three Manga Rares in a single set

Watch Wednesday and Thursday secondary market pricing closely.

Those numbers will tell us where the market believes the true chase cards are before retail inventory arrives.

Final Thoughts

The next ten weeks may define the second half of the TCG market.

Between:

• PSA’s grading bottleneck

• Pitch Black

• Storm Emeralda

• Pokémon’s 30th Anniversary

• One Piece OP-16

Collectors are being forced to make allocation decisions now.

Grade.

Hold.

Buy.

Wait.

Every collection is different.

But the data is increasingly pointing toward the same conclusion:

Cards with established PSA premiums and constrained grading supply are becoming more attractive by the day.

September isn’t far away.

And once the 30th Anniversary cycle begins, today’s prices may look very different.

— The Bandicoots 🎴📈

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This weekend belonged to Xbox. Today belongs to Apple.

And for the first time in years, Microsoft’s gaming division looks like it finally remembers what made Xbox special in the first place.

🎮 Xbox Finally Picks A Direction

For years, Xbox felt stuck between two identities.

Was it a hardware platform?

A Game Pass subscription service?

A publisher?

A cloud company?

Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase finally delivered an answer.

Xbox wants exclusives again.

Not temporary exclusives.

Not “launching first on Xbox.”

Actual exclusives.

The biggest announcement wasn’t even a game trailer—it was a strategic shift.

Microsoft confirmed that both Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will remain permanent Xbox console exclusives.

That’s a dramatic change from the multi-platform strategy that saw major Xbox franchises land on competing systems and left many fans wondering what owning an Xbox actually meant anymore.

The message from Microsoft was simple:

If you want these games, you’re coming to Xbox.

🔥 Gears of War: E-Day Is The Headliner

This was the showcase’s mic-drop moment.

The Coalition revealed an extended gameplay look at Gears of War: E-Day, the long-awaited prequel showing the day the Locust first emerged and changed humanity forever.

The game launches:

• October 6, 2026

• Xbox Series X|S

• PC

• Game Pass Day One

Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago return, and the footage looked exactly like what longtime fans wanted:

• Darker tone

• Tighter combat

• Less bloat

• More grit

Sometimes nostalgia works.

Sometimes nostalgia with chainsaws works even better.

Open beta access begins August 6 for pre-order customers.

🟢 The Anniversary Hardware Everyone Wants

Xbox turns 25 this year.

Naturally, Microsoft responded by making collectors reach for their wallets.

The new Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition features:

• Fully translucent green shell

• Illuminated green startup logo

• Anniversary branding

• Transparent rear housing

It’s essentially a love letter to the original Xbox era.

The matching controller may actually steal the show.

Highlights include:

• Original ABXY button colors

• Green bumpers inspired by the Duke controller

• Transparent battery compartment

• Hidden Xbox logo details

Release Dates

🕹️ Controller: October 2026

🎮 Console: November 2026

Prediction:

These will disappear faster than concert tickets and immediately become eBay gold.

⚔️ Fable Finally Gets A Release Date

After years of trailers, rumors, delays, and internet speculation, Fable is officially real.

Release date:

📅 February 23, 2027

Premium Edition Early Access:

📅 February 18, 2027

Playground Games also revealed the game’s primary antagonist:

Isabel, Hero of Wraithmarsh, portrayed by Hayley Atwell.

Even more intriguing?

The trailer hinted at the return of Jack of Blades, one of the franchise’s most iconic villains.

This remains a multiplatform launch, but finally having a release date turns the marketing machine from “coming someday” into “coming soon.”

🎮 Quick-Hit Announcements

Xbox packed enough reveals into two hours to fill an entire month of gaming news.

Notable Releases

• Halo: Campaign Evolved — July 28

• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — August 27

• Minecraft Dungeons 2 — September 29

• Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse — October 15

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — October 23

• Persona 4: Revival — February 18, 2027

• Clockwork Revolution — 2027

• Spyro: A Realm Beyond — 2027

Also appearing:

• New Senua showcase

• Fresh State of Decay 3 gameplay

• Brief Persona 6 teaser

The Xbox release calendar suddenly looks very crowded—in the best possible way.

📱 Apple’s Turn: WWDC Is Happening Right Now

While Xbox dominated Sunday, Apple is commanding the spotlight today.

WWDC 2026 kicked off this morning from Apple Park, and all eyes are on one thing:

Siri.

Specifically, Apple’s rebuilt AI-powered Siri experience, which is expected to become the centerpiece of the company’s next-generation software ecosystem.

Also expected:

• iOS 27

• iPadOS 27

• macOS 27

• watchOS 27

• visionOS 27

The event carries additional weight because many industry watchers believe this could be the final WWDC keynote led by CEO Tim Cook before a reported leadership transition later this year.

If that happens, today becomes more than a product event.

It becomes the end of an era.

We’ll have a full breakdown once Apple’s announcements are finalized.

🔮 Looking Ahead

The rest of the week won’t just be about technology.

Markets are watching:

📊 CPI Inflation Report — Wednesday

🏦 ECB Rate Decision — Thursday

Both could influence tech valuations, AI spending, and growth-stock sentiment heading into the second half of June.

Because even when the gaming trailers are exciting...

interest rates still find a way to become part of the conversation.

Final Thoughts

This weekend felt like a turning point for Xbox.

For the first time in years, Microsoft’s gaming division looked confident, focused, and willing to make bold platform decisions.

Meanwhile, Apple is trying to convince the world that its AI future is finally ready.

One company is fighting to reclaim its identity.

The other is fighting to redefine it.

Either way, it’s shaping up to be one of the most important weeks in tech we’ve seen all year.

Keep your Game Pass active, your beta downloads ready, and your Apple keynote tabs open.

The news cycle isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

— The Bandicoots 📱🔌

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For the first time in 27 years, the NBA Finals are back at Madison Square Garden.

And the Knicks are bringing a 2-0 series lead with them.

Saturday night ended with the Spurs holding the ball, trailing by one, and putting the game in the hands of the most talented player on the floor. Seven seconds later, Victor Wembanyama’s jumper bounced off the rim, the buzzer sounded, and the Knicks escaped San Antonio with a 105-104 win.

Now the series shifts to New York.

The Garden has been waiting since 1999 for this moment.

Tonight, it finally arrives.

🏀🔥 Game 2: One Mistake Changed Everything

The final sequence felt like something straight out of a playoff movie.

San Antonio trailed 104-103 with under ten seconds remaining when Wembanyama attempted a pass that accidentally ricocheted off Stephon Castle’s back.

Turnover.

Chaos.

Opportunity.

Jalen Brunson immediately drew a foul and stepped to the line. He split the free throws, giving New York a two-point cushion.

The Spurs got one final chance.

Timeout.

Advance the ball.

Draw up a play.

Give it to Wemby.

The 20-footer looked clean coming out of his hands.

It just didn’t go in.

Game over.

Series 2-0.

💥 Karl-Anthony Towns Owned the Interior

The box score says Karl-Anthony Towns finished with:

• 21 points

• 13 rebounds

• 4 assists

The eye test says he was even better.

Towns consistently won the physical battle inside, forcing San Antonio to adjust throughout the night and making life difficult for Wembanyama around the rim.

Meanwhile, Brunson delivered one of those classic playoff performances where nothing seemed to fall—but every big moment somehow found him.

He shot just 7-for-24 from the field and still finished with 20 points.

When New York needed a bucket, a foul, or simply someone to calm the game down, Brunson was there.

Mikal Bridges added 20 points and once again looked like the glue holding everything together.

The scary part for the Spurs?

The Knicks still haven’t played their cleanest basketball.

They’re winning anyway.

😬 Spurs Let Another One Slip Away

This is the part that has to sting.

Both Games 1 and 2 were winnable.

Both ended with New York making fewer mistakes late.

Wembanyama finished with 29 points and 9 rebounds, but the final minute will dominate the conversation.

The turnover.

The missed jumper.

The missed opportunity.

That’s playoff basketball.

A superstar can dominate for 47 minutes, but fans remember the final possession.

De’Aaron Fox quietly had one of San Antonio’s most efficient nights, scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while Dylan Harper continued to flash the aggression and confidence the Spurs desperately need.

There were positive signs.

There just weren’t enough of them.

📚 History Is Suddenly On The Knicks’ Side

The Knicks are now just the third team in NBA Finals history to win the first two games on the road.

The previous two?

🏆 1993 Bulls

🏆 1995 Rockets

Both won championships.

That’s obviously good company.

But New York knows better than anyone that playoff leads can disappear quickly.

Mikal Bridges referenced his experience with the 2023 Suns team that grabbed a 2-0 lead before losing four straight.

Nobody inside the Knicks locker room is celebrating yet.

At least publicly.

🔮 Tonight’s Storyline: The Garden Returns

Forget strategy for a second.

Forget matchups.

Forget analytics.

Madison Square Garden is hosting its first NBA Finals game since June 25, 1999.

That building has hosted championships, legends, concerts, boxing matches, and some of the loudest crowds in sports history.

Tonight might top all of them.

Fans have been gathering around MSG for days.

The city feels different.

The anticipation feels different.

And if the Knicks grab Game 3?

The championship conversation becomes very real.

🏀 Tonight’s Numbers

Game 3

• Knicks vs Spurs

• 8:30 PM ET

• ABC

• Madison Square Garden

Odds

• Knicks -2.5

• Over/Under: 216.5

Game 4

• Wednesday

• 8:30 PM ET

• ABC

• Madison Square Garden

Final Take

The Spurs aren’t dead.

Victor Wembanyama is too talented for this series to be over.

But history is working against San Antonio.

Only five teams have ever recovered from an 0-2 Finals deficit, and none started by losing both games at home.

The Knicks did what championship teams do—they survived imperfect nights and found ways to win.

Now they head home with momentum, confidence, and an entire city ready to shake the building.

Twenty-seven years of waiting ends tonight.

Clear your schedule.

Madison Square Garden is finally getting its Finals moment.

— The Bandicoots 🏀🔥

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• The May jobs report came in hot at 172K vs. 85K expected, marking a third straight beat.

• Treasury yields jumped to 4.54%, and Fed hike odds surged to 57%.

• Broadcom crushed earnings but disappointed AI bulls with softer guidance, sending shares down 14%.

• The Nasdaq fell 4.18%, its worst day since the 2025 tariff panic.

• The S&P 500 dropped 2.64%, ending its shot at a 10-week winning streak.

• Next up: ECB rate decision Thursday with markets pricing in a near-certain 25bps hike.

• Bandicoot Watchlist: Oracle ↑ | Adobe ↓

🏀🔥 Sports

• The Knicks stole Games 1 and 2 in San Antonio and now lead the Finals 2-0.

• Brunson is playing through injuries and still delivering clutch buckets.

• Wemby has been dominant at times, but late turnovers and missed opportunities have haunted the Spurs.

• New York joins only the 1993 Bulls and 1995 Rockets as teams to open the Finals with two road wins.

• Game 3 tonight at MSG — the Garden’s first Finals game since 1999.

📱🔌 Tech

• WWDC is Monday, and Apple’s AI overhaul is the biggest keynote in years.

• Siri is expected to get a major upgrade powered by Google’s Gemini infrastructure, with support for Claude and ChatGPT integrations.

• Congress unveiled a sweeping new AI bill that could reshape regulation for frontier labs.

• GitHub Copilot’s new token pricing is already creating sticker shock for some developers.

• Data center demand remains insane, but power grid bottlenecks could delay up to half of planned U.S. capacity.

🎴 TCG Corner

• PSA paused Value grading amid a 10 million-card backlog.

• One Piece OP-16 prereleases begin this weekend with three Manga Rares.

• Pokémon’s Ascended Heroes leads raw set value, while Crown Zenith remains king of pack EV.

• Chaos Rising still isn’t a profitable rip despite headline chase cards.

• Yu-Gi-Oh’s Battles of Legend: Glorious Gallery arrives loaded with extended-art and chibi variants.

🔮 The Week Ahead

The Fed just got a lot less comfortable, Apple is about to show its AI hand, and Madison Square Garden might host the biggest Knicks game in nearly three decades.

Not a bad week for June.

— The Bandicoots 📉📈

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Last week ended with a full-scale tech meltdown, the kind that starts with one earnings report and snowballs into a sector-wide panic before lunch.

The Nasdaq plunged 4.18% on Friday alone, marking its worst single-day decline since the tariff chaos of April 2025. The S&P 500 fell 2.64% to 7,383.74, while the Dow dropped 695 points to 50,866.78.

For the week:

• S&P 500: -2.1%

• Nasdaq: -4.7%

• Dow Jones: -1.8%

The AI-fueled rally that pushed the S&P Tech Sector up nearly 45% over the last ten weeks finally hit resistance.

And the catalyst was a company that technically did everything right.

😬 Biggest Loser: Broadcom (AVGO)

Sometimes Wall Street grades on a curve.

Broadcom reported what most CEOs would consider a dream quarter:

• Revenue: $22.19B vs. $22.13B expected

• EPS: $2.44 vs. $2.39 expected

• AI Semiconductor Revenue: $10.8B (+143% YoY)

• Q3 Revenue Guidance: $29.4B vs. $28.6B expected

So naturally, the stock fell 14%.

The issue wasn’t the numbers.

The issue was expectations.

AVGO entered earnings up nearly 88% over the previous year and trading at all-time highs. Institutional investors weren’t looking for a beat—they were looking for a moonshot.

Instead, management delivered guidance that was strong but not spectacular enough to justify increasingly aggressive AI growth assumptions.

The result?

A rapid repricing across the entire semiconductor space.

Collateral Damage:

• Nvidia: -5.93%

• Cisco: -6.35%

• IBM: -5.54%

• AMD: -4.0%

• Intel: -3.0%

None of those companies reported bad news.

They were simply standing too close to the explosion.

💥 Biggest Gainer: Marvell (MRVL)

While Broadcom spent Friday falling out of a window, Marvell spent most of the week celebrating.

Shares surged 33% after Jensen Huang’s endorsement at Computex, making it the week’s biggest winner.

Even after some profit-taking later in the week, MRVL finished at $277.15—well above its pre-Computex level near $220.

When Jensen speaks, the semiconductor sector tends to listen.

And sometimes it buys first and asks questions later.

📊 Why the Selloff Got So Violent

Broadcom may have lit the match, but macro data poured gasoline on the fire.

Heading into the week, BTIG highlighted a remarkable statistic:

The S&P Technology Sector had rallied 44.6% over ten weeks—its strongest 10-week gain ever recorded.

At the same time:

• RSI climbed to 82

• Tech traded 28% above its 200-day moving average

Historically, those conditions rarely end with calm consolidation.

Then Friday’s jobs report arrived.

May payrolls came in at 172,000—roughly double expectations.

That pushed Treasury yields to 4.54% and reignited fears that the Fed may need to stay aggressive.

Strong economy.

Higher yields.

Higher discount rates.

That’s a dangerous combination for stocks priced for perfection.

🔮 This Week’s Biggest Market Movers

Wednesday: CPI Report

The most important number of the week arrives Wednesday morning.

Investors will be watching inflation data for clues ahead of the Fed’s June 16–17 meeting.

Current market pricing implies roughly a 57% probability of another rate hike.

What Happens If...

Hot CPI?

• Treasury yields likely move higher

• Rate hike odds increase

• Growth stocks face more pressure

Cool CPI?

• Relief rally potential

• Tech rebounds

• Friday’s losses partially reverse

One report could determine the market’s direction for the rest of June.

Thursday: ECB Decision

The European Central Bank is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points to 2.25%.

That would end a seven-meeting pause.

The challenge?

Europe’s economy is slowing while inflation remains sticky.

Core CPI recently climbed to a 13-month high, while Eurozone growth forecasts continue to deteriorate.

Central banks hiking into weakening economic conditions is rarely a bullish signal for risk assets.

📈 Predicted Gainer: Oracle (ORCL)

Oracle reports earnings Wednesday after the close.

Wall Street expects approximately $16.4 billion in revenue.

While investors obsess over Nvidia, Oracle has quietly become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom.

Key strengths:

• Massive cloud infrastructure expansion

• $130 billion in remaining performance obligations

• AI partnerships with OpenAI, Meta, and major hyperscalers

The stock is already up 40% year-to-date, but still trades at a valuation discount relative to many AI peers.

A strong quarter and raised guidance could close that gap quickly.

Prediction: Oracle surprises to the upside and becomes this week’s biggest winner.

📉 Predicted Loser: Adobe (ADBE)

Adobe reports Thursday after the close.

The setup isn’t ideal.

AI image and video generation tools continue to pressure Adobe’s traditional premium software model, while revenue growth has slowed for four consecutive quarters.

Investors aren’t worried about last quarter.

They’re worried about the next five.

Adobe still has one of the strongest brands in software, but the market increasingly wants proof that AI will expand the moat rather than shrink it.

Prediction: Conservative guidance sends shares lower.

Final Thoughts

Last week’s selloff wasn’t about Broadcom.

It was about expectations.

When an entire sector rallies nearly 45% in ten weeks, investors stop rewarding good news and start demanding perfection.

This week shifts the focus from earnings to economics.

CPI, the ECB, and two major tech earnings reports will likely determine whether Friday was a healthy reset—or the start of something larger.

Keep your watchlist ready.

Volatility just walked back into the room.

— The Bandicoots 📉📈

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It’s a commodity, a collectible, a speculative asset, and occasionally a better investment than whatever your cousin is pitching at the barbecue.

This weekend brings one of the busiest stretches of the year for trading card collectors, and for once, the data is telling a much clearer story than social media.

Let’s dive in.

🏴‍☠️ OP-16 Prereleases Are Officially Underway

One Piece TCG’s OP-16: Time of Battle officially launched prerelease events today and runs through June 11 before retail release on June 12.

Every participant receives a Marineford Luffy promo, while top finishers earn a stamped Winner version.

But the real story isn’t the promo.

It’s the product itself.

For the first time in One Piece TCG history, a booster set contains three Manga Rare cards.

That’s a major structural change for the game.

Historically, Manga Rares have been among the most coveted and difficult pulls in the hobby. Adding three of them dramatically raises the ceiling for sealed product while creating multiple chase targets instead of a single market-defining card.

Add in fan-favorite leaders like:

• Portgas D. Ace

• Blackbeard

• Yamato

• Buggy

And you’ve got one of the most anticipated One Piece releases ever.

The best part for English players?

We already have two weeks of Japanese market data.

That’s two weeks of mistakes someone else gets to make first.

🎴 Yu-Gi-Oh’s Best Collector Set of 2026?

Konami may have quietly delivered the year’s strongest collector product with Battles of Legend: Glorious Gallery.

The headline attraction is simple:

Extended Art Cards.

Ten major cards receive full-art borderless treatments, including:

• Dragon Master Magia

• Red Supernova Dragon

• Dominus Impulse

And every one of them can be pulled in coveted Starlight Rare versions.

Konami also sprinkled in ten chibi variants featuring fan favorites like:

• Dark Magician Girl

• Tour Guide From the Underworld

• Summoned Skull

Every pack is all-foil, delivering four Ultra Rares and one Secret Rare.

For collectors, this is exactly the kind of set that ages well because it leans into display value rather than tournament relevance alone.

💥 Weekend Buy Target

The Starlight Rare extended arts are the cards we’re watching most closely.

Collector demand has consistently flowed toward premium presentation over the last two years, and Glorious Gallery is built almost entirely around that trend.

📊 What the Collectrics Data Actually Says

Everyone has a hot take.

The leaderboard has receipts.

According to Collectrics’ June 5 update:

Highest Raw Set Values

🥇 Ascended Heroes — $7,577

🥈 Prismatic Evolutions — $4,922

🥉 Surging Bolt — $3,135

Ascended Heroes remains the heavyweight champion of raw set value by a massive margin.

But that’s only part of the story.

Best Rip Value Per Pack

🥇 Crown Zenith — $10.77

🥈 Scarlet & Violet 151 — $10.40

🥉 Ascended Heroes — $7.60

Meanwhile, Chaos Rising and Perfect Order continue climbing the “least painful to open” rankings.

That doesn’t mean rip them.

It means the market may have overcorrected and created opportunities in singles.

Those are two very different things.

🏆 PSA Gem Rate Leaders

The grading data is equally revealing.

Highest Gem Rates

🥇 Perfect Order — 72.7%

🥈 Ascended Heroes — 63.4%

🥉 Mega Evolution Era — 59.2%

Perfect Order’s numbers stand out because the population remains relatively small while maintaining an elite gem percentage.

Ascended Heroes is perhaps more impressive.

Its 63.4% gem rate comes despite over 28,000 graded submissions.

That’s not luck.

That’s a set proving itself at scale.

📈 The Quiet Winner Nobody Is Talking About

The most interesting chart this week isn’t value.

It’s consistency.

Collectrics’ 30-day trend tracker shows:

🥇 Chaos Rising

🥈 Paldean Fates

🥉 Mega Evolution

Chaos Rising has delivered the most consistent day-over-day appreciation over the past month.

No dramatic spikes.

No social media-fueled mania.

Just steady upward movement.

Those are often the healthiest markets.

Ascended Heroes remains the most volatile set, which means patient buyers continue getting windows to enter positions at discounts.

Volatility creates opportunity.

Consistency creates confidence.

🌑 Pitch Black Is Coming Fast

The next major Pokémon release is approaching quicker than many collectors realize.

Pitch Black

• Prerelease: July 4–12

• Retail Release: July 17

Highlights include:

• Zarude Illustration Rare ETB promo

• Mega Darkrai ex

• Mega Zeraora ex

• Mega Chandelure ex

• Mega Excadrill ex

The set is heavily based on Japan’s Abyss Eye release, creating a tighter card pool with concentrated chase slots.

Translation?

The hits matter more.

And the misses hurt more.

Given how quickly Chaos Rising allocations disappeared, collectors should expect MSRP windows to be brief once Pokémon Center preorders go live.

Set alerts now.

Future you will appreciate it.

⚡ Storm Emeralda Might Be the Sneaky Play

Only two weeks after Pitch Black comes Storm Emeralda on July 31.

The face card?

Mega Rayquaza ex

Historically, when two major sets launch in rapid succession, the second release often receives less attention than it deserves.

Collectors run out of capital.

Stores split focus.

Content creators chase the newer story.

If that pattern repeats, the early weeks of Storm Emeralda could present one of the better buying opportunities of the summer.

Especially on premium Mega Rayquaza singles.

🔮 Weekend Playbook

The strategy heading into the weekend feels straightforward:

🏴‍☠️ One Piece

Play OP-16 prereleases and monitor Japanese pricing trends before retail launch.

🎴 Yu-Gi-Oh

Target Glorious Gallery Starlight Rare extended arts while supply is fresh.

⚡ Pokémon

Remain patient on Chaos Rising MHRs and SIRs while grading pressure remains subdued.

The loudest voices in the hobby often chase what’s moving today.

The best opportunities usually sit where the data says tomorrow’s demand is building.

And right now, the numbers are speaking pretty clearly.

Happy hunting.

— The Bandicoots 🎴⚡

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Apple’s biggest keynote of the year is three days away.

Congress just unveiled its most ambitious AI proposal yet.

And the infrastructure powering the entire AI boom is running headfirst into the physical limits of reality.

Just another week in tech.

📱🔌 WWDC 2026: Apple’s AI Moment Has Arrived

At this point, the leaks have painted a fairly complete picture of what Apple plans to unveil Monday morning.

The headline feature is a rebuilt Siri.

According to multiple reports, Siri is expected to gain:

• Persistent conversation history

• A dedicated chat-style interface

• A “Search or Ask” prompt integrated with Dynamic Island

• Camera integration for contextual assistance

• Cross-app intelligence improvements

Meanwhile, Apple’s Photos app reportedly gains AI-powered editing tools capable of extending, reframing, and enhancing images.

Safari gets automated tab organization.

Wallet gains the ability to create digital passes from physical tickets and cards, plus receipt scanning and bill-splitting tools.

None of these features individually feel revolutionary.

Collectively?

They’re exactly the kind of daily-use upgrades that quietly become indispensable six months later.

🤖 Apple’s Billion-Dollar AI Admission

The most fascinating WWDC story might not be what Apple built.

It’s what Apple reportedly didn’t.

Reports suggest Apple is paying Google roughly $1 billion annually to access a customized Gemini model powering major portions of the new Siri experience.

That’s a stunning number.

And an even more stunning strategic decision.

For years Apple insisted it could build AI largely in-house.

Now it appears the company has decided the winning move isn’t necessarily owning the model.

It’s owning the interface.

The rumored Apple Intelligence architecture reportedly allows users to route requests through multiple providers, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.

Apple may be positioning itself as the operating system for AI rather than competing directly in the model race.

If it works, it’s brilliant.

If it doesn’t, critics will call it the most expensive admission of defeat in Silicon Valley history.

Monday will tell us which narrative wins.

💻 The End of the Intel Mac Era

One chapter officially closes with macOS 27.

Support for Intel-powered Macs is reportedly ending, completing a transition that began with the launch of Apple’s M1 chip five years ago.

It’s difficult to overstate how successful the Apple Silicon migration has been.

What started as a risky architectural shift is now viewed as one of the most successful hardware transitions in modern computing.

Rumors continue to swirl around:

• M5 Ultra hardware

• New MacBook Pro configurations

• Future foldable device support

Perhaps most interesting, reports suggest iOS 27 already contains optimization groundwork for a foldable iPhone expected sometime in 2027 or beyond.

Apple may not be ready to unveil foldables.

But the software appears to be getting ready.

🏛️ Congress Finally Enters the AI Chat

While Apple prepares to launch AI products, Washington spent the week debating how to regulate them.

Representatives Jay Obernolte and Lori Trahan released a 269-page discussion draft of the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act.

The proposal would:

• Preempt state-level AI development laws for three years

• Require frontier labs to disclose safety plans

• Mandate incident reporting

• Require independent audits

• Establish civil penalties for violations

• Fund a national AI standards center with $100 million annually

Notably, the proposal specifically targets major labs including:

• OpenAI

• Anthropic

• xAI

• Google DeepMind

Labor groups immediately criticized the proposal as overly favorable to industry.

Technology organizations largely applauded it.

For now, it’s only a discussion draft.

But it’s easily the most serious federal AI governance proposal to reach this stage.

And its arrival just days before WWDC feels almost poetic.

💥 GitHub Copilot Accidentally Started a Pricing War

Developers spent much of the week arguing about one thing:

Tokens.

GitHub Copilot’s transition away from flat-rate subscriptions toward token-based billing officially took effect June 1.

For casual users, the change may barely register.

For heavy AI users?

The reaction has been explosive.

Some developers running extensive reasoning workloads are projecting monthly costs many times higher than previous subscription fees.

Conveniently, Microsoft unveiled MAI-Code-1 during Build.

The new coding-focused model is specifically designed to reduce inference costs while maintaining performance inside GitHub and VS Code.

That’s either excellent product timing.

Or a fire extinguisher arriving moments after the fire started.

🏗️ The AI Infrastructure Boom Hits a Wall

The industry’s biggest long-term challenge isn’t software.

It’s concrete.

And transformers.

And power grids.

Reports this week suggest 30% to 50% of planned U.S. AI data center projects may miss 2026 deployment targets or be canceled entirely.

The reasons are surprisingly old-fashioned:

• Grid connection delays

• Transformer shortages

• Permitting issues

• Water concerns

• Community opposition

The irony is hard to miss.

The AI industry has effectively solved billion-parameter reasoning.

Now it’s getting stuck waiting for electrical equipment.

Meanwhile, Europe continues accelerating its own infrastructure push, with major investment commitments flowing toward sovereign AI projects.

The race for AI leadership increasingly looks like an energy competition disguised as a software competition.

🔮 What to Watch Monday

WWDC 2026 is shaping up to be one of Apple’s most important keynotes in years.

If Siri delivers on expectations, Apple instantly places AI functionality in front of more than a billion users.

If it falls short, critics will argue that Apple spent the last three years reacting rather than leading.

The stakes couldn’t be much higher.

Because this isn’t really a Siri launch.

It’s Apple’s first serious attempt to answer the question every investor, developer, and consumer has been asking:

What does the AI era look like on an iPhone?

We’ll find out Monday.

📱 Final Thoughts

This week captured the entire technology industry in one snapshot.

Apple is racing to reinvent Siri.

Congress is racing to regulate AI.

Microsoft is racing to lower inference costs.

And the infrastructure sector is racing to build enough power to support all of it.

Everyone agrees AI is the future.

The fight now is deciding who controls it.

Clear your calendar for Monday morning.

The next chapter starts at 10 AM Pacific.

— The Bandicoots 📱🔌

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They’re born limping.

Jalen Brunson took a shot to his right knee in the first quarter. Later, he rolled his left ankle after being stepped on. For most of three quarters, he looked uncomfortable, frustrated, and far from 100%.

Then the fourth quarter arrived.

And so did Playoff Brunson.

🏀🔥 Brunson Delivers Another Signature Moment

The Knicks defeated the Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, stealing home-court advantage and extending one of the most remarkable postseason runs in league history.

Brunson finished with 30 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, despite spending much of the night fighting through injuries.

With less than two minutes remaining and New York trailing by two, Brunson buried a corner three that flipped the game on its head.

The shot ignited an 11-0 Knicks run that transformed a nail-biter into a statement victory.

For three quarters, San Antonio looked in control.

For the final five minutes, it looked like Brunson remembered he was the best closer on the floor.

📈 The Knicks Keep Making History

The win marked New York’s 12th consecutive playoff victory.

That’s elite company.

Only two teams in NBA history have previously won 12 straight games during a single postseason run:

• 1999 Spurs

• 2015 Warriors

Now this Knicks team joins the list.

The irony?

The Spurs team from that 1999 run is the very franchise standing in their way.

History has a funny sense of humor.

💥 New York’s Supporting Cast Shows Up Again

While Brunson grabbed the headlines, the Knicks won because their depth once again delivered.

Karl-Anthony Towns

• 18 points

• 12 rebounds

• 4 assists

KAT spent the night battling Victor Wembanyama’s length and did exactly what New York needed: provide stability when Brunson couldn’t fully attack.

Josh Hart

• 15 rebounds

• 6 assists

As usual, Hart somehow found every loose ball in Texas.

The man treats rebounds like they’re limited-edition sneakers.

Landry Shamet

• 13 points off the bench

New York’s reserves outscored San Antonio’s bench 28-20, continuing a trend that’s fueled this entire playoff run.

😬 A Rare Off Night for Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, but the box score doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Knicks made life miserable.

Wemby shot just 6-for-21 from the field and committed six turnovers, repeatedly getting pulled away from the paint and into uncomfortable perimeter possessions.

The Spurs also struggled from deep, shooting:

11-for-43 from three (25.6%)

Julian Champagnie accounted for nearly half those makes with a 5-for-10 performance.

Everyone else?

A brutal 18.2% from beyond the arc.

For one of the league’s most explosive offenses, it was a surprisingly clunky night.

🌟 The Spurs’ Silver Lining

If San Antonio is looking for optimism, it starts with rookie Dylan Harper.

Harper scored 16 points off the bench and consistently attacked the Knicks’ defense when others settled for jumpers.

His aggressive play stood out so much that many questioned why he wasn’t on the floor during crunch time.

Expect that conversation to continue if Game 2 gets tight.

Because right now, he looks like one of San Antonio’s best answers to New York’s physicality.

🔧 What Changes in Game 2?

The adjustments are pretty clear.

For San Antonio:

• Get Wembanyama touches closer to the basket

• Reduce turnovers

• Create easier looks in transition

• Consider giving Harper more late-game minutes

For New York:

• Keep forcing Wembanyama into difficult half-court possessions

• Continue attacking driving lanes

• Let Brunson control pace late

The Knicks exposed cracks in the Spurs’ defensive scheme during the second half.

Expect San Antonio to spend the next 24 hours trying to patch every one of them.

🔮 Tonight’s Prediction

History favors the Spurs.

Road teams that win Game 1 of the NBA Finals have struggled in Game 2 over the last two decades, and San Antonio has consistently bounced back from playoff losses throughout this postseason.

The Spurs are currently favored by roughly 5.5 to 6.5 points, depending on the sportsbook.

But history has been trying to stop these Knicks for weeks.

It hasn’t worked yet.

The bigger question isn’t whether San Antonio adjusts.

It’s whether those adjustments matter against a team that’s won 12 straight playoff games and suddenly looks convinced destiny is wearing orange and blue.

🏆 Final Take

Game 1 proved something important.

The Knicks don’t need perfect conditions to win.

They don’t need Brunson at full strength.

They don’t even need to lead for most of the night.

They just need to be close when the fourth quarter starts.

That’s a terrifying reality for every team left standing.

Game 2 tips tonight at 8:30 PM ET on ABC.

San Antonio wants revenge.

New York wants history.

Clear your schedule—the action is just getting started.

— The Bandicoots 🏀🔥

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This week’s market story came down to one simple reality: the economy is still running hotter than the Federal Reserve wants.

And Wall Street noticed.

📊 Jobs Report Shakes Up the Fed Narrative

The May jobs report landed Friday morning and immediately became the biggest macro story of the week.

The U.S. economy added 172,000 jobs in May, crushing expectations of just 85,000. Unemployment held steady at 4.3%, while revisions added another 93,000 jobs to March and April payrolls.

In other words: the labor market isn’t cooling.

Not even close.

Leisure and hospitality led the charge with 70,000 new jobs, including 48,000 positions in restaurants and bars alone.

Even more notable? This marked the third consecutive month payroll growth exceeded consensus estimates.

Wall Street was hoping for signs of softness.

Instead, it got a labor market that refuses to blink.

😬 Good News Becomes Bad News

The market reaction was immediate.

The 10-year Treasury yield surged to 4.54%, its highest level in weeks, while stock futures rolled over before the opening bell.

Why?

Because strong employment data makes it much harder for the Federal Reserve to justify rate cuts—and increasingly easier to justify rate hikes.

According to CME FedWatch data, the probability of at least one Fed hike later this year jumped to 57%, up from roughly 50% before the report.

Bloomberg’s Treasury desk reported that bond traders are now effectively pricing in a hike by year-end.

The market’s favorite 2026 trade—”soft landing plus rate cuts”—is suddenly looking a lot less comfortable.

🏛️ Warsh’s First Big Test

The timing couldn’t be more significant.

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh will lead his first FOMC meeting on June 16-17, inheriting a situation that looks increasingly complicated:

• Labor market remains strong

• Inflation remains elevated

• Growth hasn’t meaningfully slowed

• Financial conditions are still relatively loose

Warsh has consistently leaned hawkish in public remarks, and Fed Governor Christopher Waller recently stated he can no longer rule out future hikes if inflation remains stubborn.

The June meeting is expected to result in no policy change.

The statement afterward, however, may become the most closely watched Fed communication of the year.

Markets aren’t debating whether June brings a hike.

They’re debating whether September or November does.

💥 Palo Alto Beats Everything... And Still Stalls

The week’s biggest earnings surprise belonged to Palo Alto Networks.

The cybersecurity giant reported:

• Revenue: $3.0B (+31% YoY)

• Consensus: $2.94B

• Adjusted EPS: $0.85 vs. $0.80 expected

• Raised Q4 guidance

• Raised full-year FY2026 guidance

CEO Nikesh Arora pointed directly at AI as the driving force behind cybersecurity demand, noting that emerging threats have dramatically increased urgency across enterprise customers.

Normally that’s a recipe for a breakout rally.

Instead?

Not so much.

Shares initially jumped roughly 12% after hours before fading back toward flat by Thursday’s open.

The culprit was a surprise GAAP net loss of $177 million, compared to a profit a year ago, as acquisition integration costs weighed on margins.

It’s a reminder that in this market, even exceptional numbers aren’t always enough.

Investors are rewarding growth.

They’re demanding profitability too.

🚀 The AI Trade Keeps Running

The week’s most explosive move still belonged to Marvell Technology, which surged 33% Tuesday following Jensen Huang’s highly publicized endorsement at Computex.

Combined with HPE’s infrastructure backlog updates and continued AI spending momentum across hyperscalers, the message remains clear:

The AI buildout is happening.

The money is real.

The demand is real.

And earnings are beginning to reflect it.

The question is whether higher interest rates eventually become a headwind for those valuations.

🔮 Looking Ahead

Heading into Friday, the S&P 500 was attempting to complete its tenth consecutive positive week, a streak not seen since 1985.

That momentum now faces its biggest challenge yet.

The market is wrestling with two competing truths:

1. AI infrastructure spending continues to accelerate.

2. A stronger economy may force the Fed back into tightening mode.

That’s a difficult combination for richly valued growth stocks.

Next week’s ECB meeting and the June 16 FOMC meeting will likely determine which narrative wins.

📈 Final Thoughts

The AI boom remains intact.

Corporate spending remains strong.

Earnings continue to surprise to the upside.

But the era of “good news equals higher stocks” is looking increasingly fragile.

Friday’s jobs report reminded investors that economic strength comes with a cost.

If inflation stays sticky and the Fed starts talking hikes instead of cuts, the valuation math changes quickly.

The infrastructure buildout is real.

The earnings are showing up.

Now comes the harder question:

Can the market handle success?

Keep your watchlists fresh, your stops tight, and your Fed calendar circled.

This is not financial advice. Always do your own research.

— The Bandicoots 📉📈

And yesterday?
The grading world got body-slammed.

At 3PM Pacific, PSA officially paused:

• Value Bulk

• Value

• Value Plus

• Value Max

Translation:
The hobby’s favorite “send it and pray for a 10” pipeline just got shut off.

PSA says the backlog is approaching 10 million cards, and until that number drops closer to 5 million, Value tiers are gone. The company estimates roughly four months before reopening.

That means the cheapest PSA option right now is:

😬 Regular Service — $79.99 per card

That’s more than triple the old $24.99 Value Bulk tier most collectors were using.

And turnaround times?
Now sitting around 40–60 days.

The grading game just changed overnight.

📊 The Rip-and-Flip Era Just Hit a Wall

Here’s the reality:

The Pokémon rip economy that exploded over the last few years depended heavily on cheap grading.

Pull card.
Send card.
Pray to the centering gods.
Flip card.

That formula does not work the same way at eighty bucks a submission.

Take Chaos Rising for example:

• SIR: roughly $122 raw

• PSA Regular fee: $79.99

• Shipping + insurance + taxes + time: add more pain

That margin starts looking thinner than a Walgreens ETB shelf after restock day.

The only cards still making an easy PSA case right now are the true chase monsters.

Specifically:

💥 The MHR

At roughly $332 raw with PSA 10 multiples above $2,500, the MHR still survives the math.

That card basically graduated from “nice pull” to “inspect this thing under NASA-grade lighting immediately.”

🧊 CGC Suddenly Looks A Lot More Interesting

And PSA isn’t the only one tightening.

TAG also announced its Express tier is closed, leaving only:

• Priority

• Walk-Through

So now the entire grading market is bottlenecking at the same time.

That’s important because slower grading means:

• Slower population growth

• Fewer PSA 10s flooding the market

• Potentially stronger premiums on elite modern cards

Collectors got used to instant slab populations exploding on release week.

That era might be cooling off.

For the next four months?
CGC becomes the most compelling alternative conversation in the hobby.

The grading wars just entered their “limited ammo” phase.

📈 Market Check: Chaos Rising Is Stabilizing

Per Collectrics data through June 1, the broader Pokémon market actually looks… healthy.

Not euphoric.
Not collapsing.
Just stabilizing after launch insanity.

The 30-day average price paid per card peaked near $52 during the May 19–23 retail launch window before correcting into the low $40s by month end.

Which honestly feels normal.

Collectors stopped panic-buying every shiny rectangle in sight and the market recalibrated.

Meanwhile:

• Singles sales remain between $350K–$450K daily

• Sealed product still pushes $150K–$200K daily

• BWR rarity continues climbing toward $500 average

• MHR swings between $300–$380

• SIR holds around $200

• IR cards remain the hobby’s liquidity machine at 3,500–4,500 units daily

That last stat matters.

IRs are basically the Toyota Camrys of the modern hobby:
Affordable.
Reliable.
Always moving.

💸 Chaos Rising Still Isn’t a Rip Set

And the EV numbers still look brutal.

Current pack math:

• Average pack value: $4.23

• Average pack cost: $10.44

That’s not “opening packs.”
That’s recreational financial damage.

Chaos Rising remains a singles market set, period.

If you hit the MHR?
Fantastic.

If not?
You probably funded somebody else’s PSA submission.

✨ The 30th Celebration Market Is Already Heating Up

The reveal landed Monday and collectors immediately entered preorder goblin mode.

No preorder links are live yet, but expectations are already aggressive:

• Japanese forecasts: around ¥15,000 per box vs ¥7,200 MSRP

• English estimates:
  
  

  • $100–150 near launch

  • $150–300 within a year

And honestly?
The hobby’s anniversary history supports it.

For context:

• Celebrations (25th Anniversary) nearly tripled within a year

• CP6 (20th Anniversary) now trades around six times MSRP

So when people say:
“Just wait for restocks.”

The older collectors in the room start laughing like movie villains.

🌍 Simultaneous Global Launch Changes Everything

September 16 will be the first simultaneous global launch in Pokémon TCG history.

That means:

• No Japanese early access

• No import arbitrage window

• No staggered hype cycle

Every market opens at once.

Which creates one giant worldwide pressure cooker.

The set either sells through immediately…
or it doesn’t.

And judging by reaction to the FUR cards?
Good luck getting sealed product casually.

🔮 PSA’s Pause Could Collide Directly With 30th Celebration

This is the hidden storyline nobody’s ignoring anymore.

If PSA doesn’t reopen Value tiers until October…
that overlaps almost perfectly with 30th Celebration’s September 16 release.

Now imagine:

• Brand-new rarity tier

• YOSHIROTTEN artwork

• Massive anniversary hype

• First simultaneous launch ever

• Everybody trying to grade FUR cards immediately

Yeah.
That backlog tracker PSA announced is about to become hobby entertainment.

Collectors are absolutely going to monitor that thing like earnings season.

🏴‍☠️ OP-16 Prereleases Start Friday

While Pokémon dominates headlines, One Piece keeps quietly printing momentum.

English prereleases for:

OP-16: The Time of Battle

begin Friday, June 5, before retail launch on June 12.

New Leaders include:

• Portgas D. Ace

• Blue/Green Luffy

• Buggy

• Sengoku

• Yamato

• Marshall D. Teach

Which sounds less like a card set and more like anime Avengers.

Meanwhile, Market Movers data shows Adventure on Kami’s Island (OP-15) still completely controlling raw sales volume.

Top movers:

• Borsalino: 454 units

• Wyper: 195 units

• Two separate Roronoa Zoro cards at 193 and 162

And the wild part?
The entire top-10 raw sales list comes from Kami’s Island.

That’s the benchmark OP-16 walks into this weekend.

Bandai’s consistency right now deserves serious respect.

📦 Sam’s Club Is Back Again

Sam’s Club confirmed the upcoming:

Ascended Heroes Heavy Hitters Premium Collection

And veteran collectors immediately understood why that matters.

Warehouse club products have historically moved sealed pricing on featured sets almost instantly.

And Ascended Heroes has already been one of the stronger sealed holds this year:

• ETBs tracking above $200

• Booster boxes staying remarkably stable

Keep an eye on sealed movement once product details officially surface.

Because Sam’s Club drops have a habit of turning into accidental market events.

🔭 Final Thoughts

The hobby calendar right now has three giant circles on it:

• June 12: OP-16 retail launch

• July 17: Pitch Black

• September 16: 30th Celebration

And make no mistake:
The entire market is already positioning around September.

Collectors are reevaluating sealed inventory.
Graders are recalculating submissions.
Speculators are preparing for preorder warfare.

Everything between now and fall feels like setup.

Because once 30th Celebration arrives…
the hobby might hit another acceleration phase entirely.

Keep the binders ready.
Keep the slabs clean.
And maybe keep one browser tab permanently open on Pokémon Center.

You’re probably going to need it.

— The Bandicoots

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And this year?
Apple just raised the stakes dramatically.

WWDC 2026 kicks off Monday, June 8 at 10 AM from Apple Park, and for the first time in over a decade, the keynote isn’t just about software.

It’s about succession.

Tim Cook officially confirmed in April that he’ll hand the CEO role to Apple hardware chief John Ternus on September 1, making Monday his final WWDC keynote as Apple CEO. Fifteen years after taking over from Steve Jobs, Cook exits with Apple sitting at the weirdest crossroads it’s faced since the Intel-to-Apple Silicon transition.

Hardware dominance? Still elite.
AI credibility? That’s the problem.

And now the pressure shifts to Ternus.

🍏 Siri Is Either About to Be Reborn… or Exposed

Apple’s WWDC tagline this year is:

“Coming Bright Up.”

That’s not vague marketing fluff.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously reported the phrase references Apple’s rebuilt Siri interface — a glowing AI layer embedded directly into the Dynamic Island. Apple’s basically been teasing this thing in plain sight for months.

The company previewed an upgraded Siri at WWDC 2024.
Delayed it.

Mentioned it again at WWDC 2025.
Delayed it again.

Now iOS 27 is supposed to finally deliver the goods.

Rumors point to:

• A standalone Siri app

• Saved conversation history

• iMessage-style chat UI

• Gemini-powered responses underneath

• Swipe-up “Search or Ask” controls replacing Spotlight navigation

• AI Extensions support for Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT

Translation?

Apple wants Siri to stop being a voice assistant and start becoming the operating system itself.

That’s a gigantic swing.

And honestly? About time.

Because right now Siri feels less like AI and more like the friend who replies “LOL” three business days later.

📱 iOS 27: Less Flash, More Stability

The broader “27” software lineup sounds more refinement-focused than revolutionary.

Think: Apple’s Snow Leopard era.

After last year’s aggressive Liquid Glass redesign caused readability complaints across half the internet, Apple’s reportedly adding transparency controls so users can tone the effect down.

Other expected updates:

• iPhone 11 support officially ends

• Apple Intelligence features still require iPhone 15 Pro or newer

• AI integrations arrive inside Health and Calendar

• iPad multitasking gets cleaned up

• Performance and stability become the priority

Developer Beta 1 drops immediately after the keynote Monday, with the public beta expected in July.

In other words:

Apple’s trying to fix the house while simultaneously rebuilding Siri in the basement.

No pressure.

💻 Hardware? Maybe. But Don’t Bet the Rent on It

WWDC is still primarily a software show, but the rumor mill keeps leaking possible hardware refreshes:

• Mac Studio with M5

• Updated Mac mini

• A rumored MacBook Ultra

• Potential Apple TV 4K refresh

Nothing’s confirmed.

But one thing is basically guaranteed:

John Ternus will be on stage.

That matters more than the products themselves.

Ternus has spent years leading hardware engineering across iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. Monday becomes his unofficial introduction as Apple’s next era begins.

If Siri lands?
Momentum.

If Apple shows another “coming later this year” AI demo while Google and OpenAI keep sprinting?
Wall Street’s going to start asking uncomfortable questions fast.

🪟 Microsoft Just Fired Back With an AI Desktop Tank

While Apple prepares its biggest keynote in years, Microsoft quietly rolled out its own monster announcement at Build 2026.

Meet the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box.

A compact aluminum desktop built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark platform that delivers:

• 1 petaflop of AI compute

• 128GB unified memory

• Local execution for models up to 120 billion parameters

• Preloaded GitHub Copilot + VS Code

Translation?

Microsoft basically built a mini AI supercomputer and pointed it directly at the Mac Studio.

The design even features over 1,000 ventilation holes arranged in a precision grid pattern because apparently cooling systems are becoming luxury fashion now.

Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but the message is obvious:

Microsoft wants developers building AI locally on Windows — not renting cloud compute forever.

🤖 Windows Is Becoming “Agent-Native”

The more important Build story wasn’t hardware.

It was Microsoft openly redesigning Windows around AI agents.

Key announcements included:

• Microsoft Execution Containers → sandboxed AI environments for enterprise security

• GitHub Copilot /fleet → splits workloads between local AI and cloud AI

• MAI-Thinking-1 → Microsoft’s reasoning-focused model

• MAI-Code-1 → optimized specifically for GitHub + VS Code

• Azure AI Foundry → automatically picks the best AI model for each task

The through-line is crystal clear:

Big Tech no longer wants AI to live exclusively in the cloud.

They want local AI compute everywhere.

Phones. Laptops. Desktops. Enterprise systems.

The AI arms race is shifting from apps… to infrastructure.

📈 Meanwhile, Wall Street’s About to Get an AI IPO Avalanche

One last thing worth watching this week:

Anthropic officially filed confidentially for an IPO Monday.

SpaceX begins its investor roadshow today targeting a reported $1.75 trillion Nasdaq listing under ticker SPCX.

And OpenAI is reportedly preparing its own filing.

That means three of the most valuable private tech companies ever built could hit public markets inside the same cycle.

Whatever happens with valuations, one thing’s clear:

Retail investors are finally getting direct access to the companies building the AI backbone underneath literally everything else in this article.

That’s a major shift.

🔮 Final Thoughts

WWDC 2026 suddenly feels bigger than software updates.

It’s Tim Cook’s finale.
John Ternus’ opening act.
Apple’s AI credibility test.
And maybe the beginning of Silicon Valley’s next leadership era.

Monday matters.

Set the reminder. Clear the schedule. Charge the iPhone.

Because if Apple finally nails Siri after two years of delays?

The entire tech narrative changes overnight.

And if they don’t…

Well, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia are absolutely not slowing down.

— The Bandicoots 📱🔌

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Tonight, the wait finally ends.

For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals, and somehow the basketball universe scripted the perfect callback episode: Knicks vs. Spurs, Part II.

Game 1 tips off tonight at 8:30 ET at Frost Bank Center on ABC, and if you’re a Knicks fan over the age of 30, there’s a decent chance you’ve already emotionally prepared for both a championship parade and complete devastation before breakfast.

Because that’s Knicks basketball, baby.

🏀🔥 The Rematch Nobody Expected

The last time these franchises met in the Finals, Tim Duncan looked like a tax accountant who accidentally became the greatest power forward alive.

The Spurs beat New York 4-1 in 1999, ending the Knicks’ miracle run as an eighth seed. Patrick Ewing was hurt, the roster was exhausted, and San Antonio officially started a dynasty.

But this Knicks team? Completely different energy.

That 1999 squad survived on chaos and playoff magic.
This one was built like a contender from Day 1.

And honestly? They’ve looked terrifying.

📈 New York Steamrolled the East

The Knicks didn’t stumble into the Finals.
They kicked the door down.

Their playoff run so far:

• Defeated Atlanta in 6 after dropping Games 2 and 3

• Swept Philadelphia 4-0

• Swept Cleveland 4-0

• Won 11 straight playoff games entering the Finals

That Game 4 destruction of Cleveland — a 144-114 demolition — felt less like a conference finals clincher and more like a league-wide warning shot.

Mike Brown came to New York with one expectation:
Finals or bust.

Well… here they are.

Madison Square Garden might actually register on the Richter scale next week.

💥 Brunson Has Become a New York Superhero

Jalen Brunson isn’t just having a great playoff run.

He’s entering “all-time Knicks folklore” territory.

The numbers:

• 26.9 PPG

• 6.6 APG

• Multiple clutch takeover performances

• A 38-point comeback masterpiece in ECF Game 1

Every postseason needs a main character.

Right now?
It’s Brunson.

And tonight, he walks into San Antonio looking like the best player on the floor — which is not a sentence anybody expected to type a few years ago when Dallas let him walk for basically free.

Somewhere, Mavericks fans just felt a disturbance in the force.

🧠 KAT vs. Wemby Is the Entire Chess Match

This series may ultimately come down to one question:

Can Karl-Anthony Towns pull Victor Wembanyama away from the rim?

Because if he can?
The Knicks offense becomes terrifying.

KAT is averaging:

• 16.9 PPG

• 10.6 RPG

• 48.9% from three

That’s absurd efficiency for a stretch big in the Finals.

Meanwhile, Wembanyama continues to look like someone built a video game character in a lab:

• 23.2 PPG

• 10.8 RPG

• 3.5 BPG

• 51% shooting

• 37% from three

The reigning DPOY impacts literally every possession.

If Wemby protects the paint, Towns gets clean perimeter looks.
If Wemby steps out, Brunson gets downhill lanes.

There’s no perfect answer here.
Just pick-your-poison basketball.

And honestly?
That’s what makes this matchup incredible.

🔥 San Antonio Isn’t Just Wemby

That’s the scary part.

The Spurs survived a brutal seven-game war against Oklahoma City and looked tougher after every game.

Key pieces:

• Stephon Castle: 19.2 PPG, 6.7 APG in the playoffs

• Julian Champagnie: breakout postseason hero

• De’Aaron Fox: elite speed and secondary scoring

This isn’t a one-man operation anymore.
San Antonio has layers now.

Which is exactly how dynasties start.

And if Knicks fans hear the word “dynasty” connected to the Spurs again, they may collectively pass out.

😬 One Massive Injury Question

Mitchell Robinson is questionable for Game 1 with a broken finger.

And that matters.

A lot.

New York dominated San Antonio on the offensive glass during the regular season, and Robinson’s physicality is a huge reason why.

Without him?
The rebounding edge gets thinner.
The paint gets softer.
And suddenly Wemby becomes even more dangerous.

That injury could quietly swing the first two games.

📊 Vegas Says Spurs. The Vibes Say Chaos.

San Antonio enters Game 1 as a 4.5-point favorite at home.

And honestly?
Fair.

The Spurs haven’t lost at Frost Bank Center all postseason.
They just eliminated the defending champs in a Game 7 on the road.
And Wemby feels increasingly inevitable.

But then there’s the other side of this.

The Knicks haven’t been here since dial-up internet.
Since “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”
Since flip phones were considered futuristic technology.

New York sports fans have waited nearly three decades for this moment.

And Madison Square Garden is waiting.

Games 3 and 4 shift back to MSG on June 8 and June 10, and when that building hosts Finals basketball again?

The city may actually levitate.

🔮 Prediction Time

Every expert says this series goes at least six.

They’re probably right.

The Knicks have the toughness.
The Spurs have the generational superstar.
Both teams are deep.
Both teams are battle-tested.

This feels like a heavyweight fight that comes down to execution late in games.

And whichever team controls the fourth quarter pace probably controls the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

One thing’s guaranteed:
The basketball world will be watching.

And Knicks fans?
They’ve waited 27 years for this.

Get locked in.

📺 NBA Finals Schedule

• Game 1: Tonight — 8:30 ET on ABC

• Game 2: Friday — 8:30 ET on ABC

• Game 3: June 8 at Madison Square Garden

• Game 4: June 10 at Madison Square Garden

Clear your schedules. Charge your phones. Cancel unnecessary responsibilities.

The Finals are finally back in New York.

— The Bandicoots 🏀🔥

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