Exclusive: TNT’s Last Chance to Save Shaquille O’Neal & Charles Barkley’s “Inside the NBA” Could Go Through Court, Warns Ex-Agent

TNT’s debacle could have a plot twist we didn’t see coming. Though reports claim that the NBA has pretty much finalized the deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC, there is a tiny sliver of hope alive for TNT. Adam Silver too said that it’s not totally the end for Inside the NBA until they officially announce the new broadcasters for NBA media. Apparently, negotiations are still on between TNT and the NBA due to a little thing dubbed the ‘matching rights’. This has been floating around since the bidding war began and the usage has been vague. These matching rights though could be the basis of a legal battle, as per Leonard Armato. Shaquille O’Neal’s former sports agent-turned-brand maker returned to EssentiallySports to discuss the new developments in NBA on TNT’s survival with Vishal Kolar.

A big part of it is Charles Barkley’s tirade calling out Turner’s leadership for botching the negotiations. Armato said that Chuck is a little off the mark. Turner CEO, David Zaslav didn’t prioritise college basketball over the NBA. He’s instead reliant on the matching rights clause.

Armato: “If I had to speculate what David Zaslav was thinking, it was, ‘I’m gonna bid $1.25 billion and try to get the deal for that. If it doesn’t work, then someone might bid a little more but I still have the matching right.’ So he knew he could match any offer. But the interesting thing is that matching rights are not as powerful today as they used to be because there are so many ways to avoid them. For example, the competition is between NBC and Warner Bros. Discovery. NBA has an over-the-air network which can guarantee wider distribution. And that’s something that can be a point of differentiation. I mean people are saying this can end up in court.”

Kolar, like a lot of us, was surprised. The incumbent WBD had the right to meet the bid of any competitors for the media rights. It was paying $1.2 billion annually to the NBA till NBC challenged it with a $2.5 billion bid. But matching rights have a catch. Contrary to what one might assume, a league doesn’t just pick the highest bidder. A larger reach is the priority.

Armato: “If NBC bids $2.5 billion, and Discovery decides, ‘Okay, we’re just going to match it because we need the NBA for various reasons,’ then what ends up happening, NBA might say, ‘We want over the air network, we want to take the NBC deal.’ And as a result, they’ll say you can’t match over the air. And there could be a big, big conflict in terms of the way that this thing comes down. So you might see this whole thing end up in court.”

If TNT loses the NBA for good, the upcoming season might be the last for Inside the NBA. There’s a bleak sign that it might be heading in the trajectory that Armato hinted.

TNT is in it for the long haul with Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley

It’s not over till Adam Silver sings. And his tune is the same, “We’re all still talking.” Previously, Armato said the most hopeful thing to keep the Inside Guys going is that the NBA commissioner gets the final say on who should be on top of the NBA coverage. Silver did assert that it won’t be the NBA without Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Ernie Johnson.

However, this time Armato says it’s unlikely they could continue as the Inside Guys because of the scale of production. Which makes these negotiations trickier. The discussions were supposed to be done a long time ago but they’re still ongoing.

The longer it goes, the uncertainty increases and Chuck lashes out. But it shows that TNT is prepared to drag this battle for as long as it takes.