The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Salmon have announced a multi-year marketing partnership that makes the financial technology company an Official Partner of the NBA in the Philippines.

The announcement was made on August 29 at NBA House Philippines 2026 presented by Gatorade in Makati City. NBA Head of Southeast Asia and Asia Marketing Sheila Rasu, NBA Asia Head of Growth and Innovation Ed Winkle, and Salmon Co-Founders George Chesakov, Pavel Fedorov, and Raffy Montemayor attended the announcement.

Bringing NBA experiences closer to fans

Through the partnership, Salmon will engage basketball fans through NBA-themed consumer promotions, fan events, and NBA-branded premiums.

Salmon will also have a presence at major NBA events in the Philippines. This includes serving as a Supporting Partner of NBA House Philippines 2026, a free basketball experience and fan event at SPACE in One Ayala on August 29 and 30.

Starting with the 2026-27 season, Salmon will also become the Presenting Partner of the NBA 3X Philippines Open. The tournament features men’s and women’s 3-on-3 teams alongside NBA entertainment.

“Basketball is a part of our daily lives as Filipinos, from the courts in our barangays to the TV screens in our homes,” said Salmon Co-Founder Raffy Montemayor.

Montemayor said the company wants Salmon to become a reliable partner for Filipinos’ everyday money moments. He added that working with the NBA gives the brand a way to connect with Filipinos through something they already love.

Rasu said Salmon shares the NBA’s commitment to using basketball to bring Filipinos together. She added that the partnership will create new touchpoints for fans through events such as NBA House and the NBA 3X Open.

NBA continues its PH presence

Filipino fans can watch NBA games through One Sports, RPTV, NBA TV Philippines, Disney+, Pilipinas Live, Prime Video, and NBA League Pass through the NBA App. The league also maintains localized social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and X.

The partnership comes as the NBA continues to deepen its presence in the Philippines, one of the league’s major basketball markets.

Salmon is a financial technology brand in the Philippines owned by Salmon Group. Its local operations include Salmon Bank (Rural Bank) Inc., a BSP-regulated entity, and Salmon Finance Inc., an SEC-licensed financing company.

It’s easy to mistake The Dog Stars for a canine-centric survival tale if you aren’t familiar with the source material.

Peter Heller’s 2012 novel uses the title as a double meaning — referencing both the star Sirius within the Canis Major constellation (hence, “the Dog Star”) and the very real bond between a man and his dog.

In Ridley Scott’s cinematic adaptation, the premise delivers a grounded, post-pandemic world devastated by a global flu. The narrative is driven by a mysterious radio transmission intercepted by Jacob Elordi’s Hig, a quiet pilot pushed by grief and an irrepressible human curiosity to see what’s left of the world beyond his refuge.

With a stacked cast, a legendary director, and rich thematic material, general moviegoers and book fans alike have plenty of reason to expect a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Sadly, as an adaptation, The Dog Stars underwhelms. What promises to be an edge-of-your-seat survival ride settles into a surprisingly dull story that lacks the punch of a post-apocalyptic thriller.

It isn’t a bad film, but it struggles to balance its atmospheric build-up with a rushed, squandered third act.

⚠️ Warning: Some spoilers ahead! ⚠️

Ridley Scott’s signature touch

For what it’s worth, Scott doesn’t take long to make his visual presence felt. The director fills the screen with sweeping tracking shots of Hig’s Cessna plane gliding over vast mountain ranges.

This is juxtaposed with melancholic, muted sequences of his daily survival routine with Josh Brolin’s Bangley.

There is a sense of desolation; unaddressed grief for Hig’s late wife and the sheer fatigue of scavenging alongside his loyal Belgian Malinois, Jasper.

The quiet routine switches gears dramatically during action sequences. Scott brings dynamic flair to the screen. Notably, when Bangley holds off a horde of Reapers, the cinematography turns into a video game-esque, FPS-style night-vision POV shot.

Ditto with the high-stakes chase at Margaret Qualley’s Cima’s place, and during the final act in the trap that is Grand Junction.

Brolin and Pearce anchor the wasteland

What’s problematic here is that the lead supports, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce, give the film its most grounded and reliable energy.

Fresh off playing a father searching for answers in Weapons, Brolin again slips effortless into his role of Bangley.

This badass survivalist with ex-Marine credentials complement Hig with a contrasting manner, making defending their abandoned airstrip look routine.

The initial friction between Hig and Bangley also drives the film’s early momentum. Bangley is perfectly content just chilling at the airstrip, while Hig is consumed by a curiosity to see what’s left on the other side of the horizon given the tools he has.

Bangley eventually concedes to Hig’s urge to chase the radio signal, but gets an earned “I told you so” moment near the end. This is fittingly a chef’s kiss to his character’s consistent demeanor.

Yet you don’t mistake Bangley’s isolation for passivity as well. He is practically itching for a reason to unleash a barnyard full of weapons (pun not intended) he’s been hoarding. It’s as if treating the invading Reapers like the ultimate survival battle he’s eagerly been waiting for in the post-pandemic world.

Complementing this heavy-duty presence is Guy Pearce’s Pops. His fiercely overprotective father persona to Cima steals the spotlight given how everyone is cherishing what’s (or who’s) left.

There are sharp one-liners aimed at keeping Hig at arm’s length, as he’s understandably paranoid after surviving the apocalypse.

Together, these are two highly enjoyable flavors of post-apocalyptic fatherhood. Eventually, Bangley warms up as the entire protagonist group relocates to integrate with the Mennonites in the end.

Pacing turbulence, squandered climax

The film’s momentum begins to stall in the second half. Once Hig crash-lands and meets Cima nad Pops, the narrative slows down considerably.

Sure, it’s a way to establish the emotional foundation and romantic spark between the couple for audiences unfamiliar with Heller’s novel. Perhaps, an attempt to balance the quiet character work with the surrounding chaos.

However, the scales still tip heavily toward sluggish pacing, with the film losing much of the earned tension. This turns what should have been a tense journey into a noticeably dull movie experience.

Quite ironically, this is where Elordi and Qualley’s acting shines the most. It doesn’t help that there is an exposition-heavy writing as you just wait for a climactic finale to unfold, yet it never quite materializes.

By the time the story finally moves to Grand Junction, what should have been a defining act feels like a rushed afterthought.

Given the creative independence, Grand Junction could have been executed like a harrowing, inescapable maze. More frustratingly, the film completely drops the ball on its most disturbing revelation.

When the group stumbles upon roomfuls of discarded passports and piles of dead bodies, it should have been a heart-stopping, horror-thriller pivot. It’s the ultimate “we are completely fucked” moment, exposing the radio signal as a trap rather than a beacon of hope.

Had the film leaned into this nightmare, it would have rolled out the red carpet for Scott to flash his brilliance even further, recalling the tight, claustrophobic dread he mastered in Alien.

Instead, the movie glances past it in a split second. The protagonists overpower the opposition far too easily, robbing the climax of any real danger or lingering tension.

Should you watch it?

Undeniably, The Dog Stars movie succeeds in grounding itself on the human side of post-pandemic survival.

This isn’t a high-octane, “suspend-your-disbelief” blockbuster stuffed with outrageous sci-fi gimmicks; it is a thoroughly logical, realistic look at how real people would handle isolation, grief, and the instinct to rebuild community after everything crumbles.

The film’s core ideas are sound, and its emotional logic is intact. Still, it simply lacks the sharp execution and narrative punch needed to elevate it into a masterpiece.

On our Watch Scale, it falls under Wait on streaming. There’s plenty of technical flair and solid performances from grizzled veterans, but the rushed finale and missed horror-thriller pivot leaves you wishing Scott had been allowed to unleash the full extent of his cinematic powers.

Nike just gave its most recognizable running shoe a new engine. This time, you can actually see it working.

The Pegasus Plus 2 puts an exposed, curved Air Zoom unit right in the forefoot, paired with a ZoomX foam midsole. It’s a setup you’d normally expect from a racing shoe, not a daily trainer.

Nike says the combination pushes energy return up by at least 18 percent compared to the original Pegasus Plus. They spent years tuning every part of the system so runners get what they actually need to feel fast and confident, without extra bulk weighing the shoe down.

What makes the Air Zoom setup different

The curved shape of the Air Zoom unit is designed to help each step roll into the next. This makes the ride feels continuous instead of choppy.

Inside, tensile fibers work like preloaded springs, storing energy from each footstrike and releasing it back with the next stride.

Nike also says the Air Zoom unit uses precise pressure tuning that adjusts across different shoe sizes. It’s aiming for a consistent feel whether you’re a size 7 or a size 13.

Built with input from Nike’s own athletes

The shoe runs on Nike’s MR10 2.0 last, the same platform introduced with the Pegasus 42, giving the forefoot and toe box more room to move.

The midfoot system is built to keep your foot locked in without feeling restrictive. Round it out with reinforced ankle materials, reflective details for low-light runs, and a waffle outsole with flex zones, and you get a shoe built to feel light and connected to the road.

Nike tested the Pegasus Plus 2 with more than 30 elite athletes, from marathoners to track specialists, running the shoe through evaluations at the Nike Sport Research Lab.

Cameron Myers, Nike athlete and 1,500-meter world leader, described the feel as locked in but still enjoyable, calling the run easy, fast, and smooth.

Where it sits in Nike’s lineup

The Pegasus Plus 2 is part of Nike’s three-tier road running lineup. Pegasus stays focused on responsive, all-day cushioning.

Vomero leans into maximum comfort, while Structure is built for stability. This latest Pegasus update pulls tech from Nike’s racing shoes and folds it into a trainer built for everyday miles.

The Nike Pegasus Plus 2 launches October 1, 2026, on nike.com and at select retailers.