As the NBA season wraps up, the media rights that ESPN and TNT own are set to expire after one more season. Rumors have been swirling about a reported $76 billion deal involving ESPN, NBC, and Amazon that would last for 11 years. It’s being reported that ESPN would pay $2.6 billion per year, NBC would pay $2.5 billion per year, and Amazon would pay $1.8 billion per year.
Yesterday, before the first game of the NBA Finals, Adam Silver took some time to apologize to the Inside The NBA crew. The uncertainty of TNT’s inclusion in the new deal has sparked rumors about a bidding war for Inside the NBA crew member Charles Barkley. A popular media figure, Barkley has claimed that he would not work without his running mate and podcast co-host Ernie Johnson, who is still under contract with Turner Sports for multiple years.
Barkley spoke on Mad Dog Sports Radio on June 4th about the lack of clarity for the Inside the NBA cast up until this moment.
“That’s the one thing that bothered me most about the TNT experience. Like, hey man, just tell us something,” Barkley said on the “Beadle & Decker” show. “Everybody’s got an article coming out every day about ‘we’ve still got a chance’ or ‘we’ve lost it.’ You guys see us every week. How ’bout picking up the phone and saying, ‘Hey, we’re still negotiating,’ or ‘you know what, we’ve lost it.’ Just trust us. Because the one thing that really sucks is that we gotta do this next year no matter what.”
The apology from Silver made sense. With a year left on the current media rights deal, clarity is a must. However, the Emmy award-winning show is a pillar in the Association and is the only show that fans have a level of passion for. A generation of fans since 1998 has watched Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, and Charles Barkley. SHAQ was the perfect addition in 2010, and the four have been one of the best things TNT has ever done within the sports space.
