On this episode of Everybody’s Business, we explain why long-suffering fans and Wall Street bankers are smiling.
By Max Chafkin and Stacey Vanek Smith | Updated on Jun 12, 2026 at 10:00 AM
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The vibes in New York City are very good this week, and not just because of the historic, 29-point comeback in Game 5 of the NBA finals. On Friday, with the New York Knicks on the cusp of winning it all, SpaceX was poised to go public. The initial public offering represents a windfall not only for almost-trillionaire Elon Musk but Wall Street banks poised to collect some $500 million in fees as part of the biggest IPO in history. Some of those bankers (and their lawyers) likely found their way to Madison Square Garden, where the price for mingling with celebrities courtside flew above $100,000 on secondary markets.
Ticket prices haven’t been the only sign of the economic impact at the NBA finals, as Bloomberg reporter Randall Williams explains on this week’s episode of Everybody’s Business . Pro basketball had seemed to stagnate in recent years, amid competition from Major League Baseball, complaints about low TV ratings and a bloated schedule that made some games seem meaningless. This year’s championship series, featuring a loveable team from the largest American city and a budding superstar in Victor Wembanyama, has turned all that around. Ratings are higher than they’ve been in decades and merch is flying off the shelves. If the San Antonio Spurs manage to stretch the series to Game 6 or 7, the numbers could get even larger.
Also, this week, Katie Greifeld, host of the Money Stuff podcast and author of the ETF IQ newsletter , joins the podcast to break down the potential market impact of the SpaceX IPO. Investors have been of two minds. On one hand, SpaceX will be wildly overvalued by traditional financial metrics. On the other, Musk.
Beyond his entrepreneurial track record, the South Africa native commands a large and faithful audience of retail investors and meme stock traders. These investors have bid up the price of his other company, Tesla, to levels that seem extreme, at least compared to other car companies. In recent years, Musk has convinced his backers that Tesla’s future lies in robotics and artificial intelligence rather than cars. Now he is doing the same at SpaceX, reframing what was once seen as a market-leading rocket company into a highly speculative play to bring AI data centers to space.
Complicating SpaceX’s pitch are confidential IPO filings by both Anthropic and OpenAI, which, like SpaceX, are offering investors their own high-risk AI gambles. The two companies could ride the coattails of SpaceX if Musk’s IPO is a success. On the other hand, if the SpaceX pitch ultimately falls flat, some investors worry Musk might endanger the AI boom. “You can see the bubble,” Greifeld says, summarizing the viewpoint of skeptics. “Here comes the pin prick.”
And finally, we weigh in on World Cup ticket sales, which aren’t quite at Knicks levels yet. Plus we discuss an off-putting new fragrance and a newly discovered (but somewhat questionable) birth control method.
About the show: every week, hosts Stacey Vanek Smith and Max Chafkin take a look at the week’s business news and break down what you need to know with the help of Bloomberg journalists, experts and the people and businesses trying to navigate the economy every day.