In the aftermath of ESPN and TNT’s agreement to air the uber-popular ‘Inside the NBA’ show on ESPN, popular podcaster Bill Simmons has some questions about this deal.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the parent company of TNT Sports, failed to retain the right to air NBA games in the league’s next television deal, which begins next season, and shortly thereafter filed a lawsuit against the NBA, alleging the league had not actually allowed WBD to ‘match’ the deal the NBA made with NBCUniversal. Ultimately, WBD and the NBA came to a settlement earlier this week, and as part of the deal, ‘Inside the NBA,’ thought to be one of the greatest sports television shows of all time, would be licensed from WBD to ESPN.
While that would seem to address concerns that the show would end following this season as a result of TNT no longer airing games, Simmons said there could still be some problems that stand in ESPN or WBD’s way.
“Basically, this is a price of ‘we will license this and you will pay us this,’ which they have not released the price because they don’t have deals with [Charles] Barkley and Kenny [Smith] yet,” Simmons said on the ‘Bill Simmons Podcast’. “It’s in all the reporting that if they lose basketball, those guys get to redo their contracts or whatever. So they’ve been quiet, they’ve been good soldiers, but they still have to get f–king paid. If you’re Barkley, it’s like, ‘Wait, how much are we licensing for?’ Let’s say they are licensing it for $75 million a year — I have no idea what it is. If you’re Barkley, what is your cut of that?
“I want to see the news that those guys have actually signed up, and we don’t even know if Shaq[uille O’Neal] is going to do it.”
Will ‘Inside the NBA’ really live on with ESPN-TNT deal?
Barkley signed a 10-year contract to stay with TNT back in 2022, and after he declared he would retire after this season, he reversed course in August and said that he would remain with the network even though it would no longer air NBA games. However, if Simmons is correct and Barkley, as well as Smith, can restructure their contracts now, they would each seem to hold incredible leverage in negotiations. Additionally, after the deal between ESPN and TNT was announced, reports surfaced that O’Neal, who has been part of the show since 2011, is not under contract for next season.
Smith joined host Ernie Johnson on ‘Inside the NBA’ in 1998, two years before Barkley, the latter of whom has been praised as the star of the multi-time Emmy-winning show.
Simmons, who worked on ESPN’s ‘NBA Countdown’ show for a few years before leaving ESPN to launch The Ringer, also brought up how ESPN would handle ‘Inside the NBA’ during broadcasts.
“[‘NBA Countdown’ has] been a failed property for a bunch of different reasons. It’s because of the producers and because they don’t give people enough time to actually talk on ‘Countdown.’ It’s the biggest reason it failed, I lived it firsthand ‘Inside The NBA,’ it’s 2 reasons it works, Barkley and Kenny, chemistry, but then they give the guys time to talk. If you watch the halftime of their shows it’s 7, 8 minutes straight. If you watch ESPN during the Finals, it’s 80 seconds. If they do it the way they’ve always did — ESPN in the past with their studio shows, the Inside The NBA people are going to get pissed because they are going to be like, ‘This isn’t the show I like.’
Starting next season, the NBA will air games on ESPN and ABC (like in years past), as well as NBC and Amazon. The 11-year pact is reportedly worth about $76 billion.
‘Inside’ is expected to air during marquee moments of the NBA season, including Opening Week, on Christmas Day, and on ABC games following New Year’s Day.
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