Despite rumors that TNT and Warner Bros. Discovery might lose their NBA broadcasting rights, Adam Silver says no decision has been made yet.
Current Negotiations
The NBA and TNT have had a long partnership spanning over 20 years. However, if recent reports are accurate, this could change soon. Sources suggest that Disney/ESPN, NBC, and Amazon might be the new players in town, potentially pushing Warner Bros. Discovery out of the picture.
Silver confirmed that negotiations are ongoing and nothing is set in stone. “Who knows,” he said before a White House dinner. “We’re all still talking.”
Adam Silver’s Achievements
During his tenure as Commissioner, Adam Silver has significantly boosted the NBA’s revenue from $4.8 billion to $12 billion. Regardless of how these media rights talks end up, he’s already seen as a winner.
During his decade as Commissioner, Adam Silver has more than doubled the NBA’s revenue to $12b from $4.8b. No matter how the league’s media rights negotiations pan out, the savvy Commissioner is already the winner.
— Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV)
The Future of Inside the NBA
Silver reassured fans that Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith would continue covering the league for years to come on ‘Inside the NBA’. “They’re always going to be covering the NBA… we all love them.”
But despite this reassurance, Barkley admitted feeling uneasy about the future. He revealed that everyone involved with ‘Inside the NBA’ is anxious about what lies ahead during these playoffs.
“We have zero idea what’s going to happen,” Barkley said last week in Chicago. “It is flat-out brutal; everybody’s scared to death.”
I think it’s really sad how uncertain everything feels right now.
Barkley’s Frustration
Barkley expressed his frustration about TNT possibly losing its broadcasting rights for the first time in over two decades on ‘The Dan Patrick Show’. He criticized TNT leadership for letting this happen: “Morale sucks, plain and simple.”
He added that it was disheartening to see money spent elsewhere instead of securing their current deal with the NBA: “I was like, well damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA.”
