A few months ago, Stephen A. Smith was pleading to the league to save Inside the NBA while negotiating a huge promotion for himself. Now both those separate discussions are tied together. NBA viewing is going to have a seismic shift in 2025 and not only for the soon-to-be-former TNT personalities. ESPN has the task of navigating the entire agreement with the Inside the NBA cast and crew around its existing structure. Until this major announcement, ESPN’s NBA coverage was centered around Stephen A. Smith and his ability to headline an entire show. It gave him leverage to negotiate the demand for a $100 million contract. But the balance is bound to tip with the arrival of some TNT heavyweights.

By most observations, ESPN would come out a winner in this situation. But depending on what Stephen A. Smith chooses – whether it’s to work with Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley or fight for his worth – he might be on the losing end of this development.

ESPN-TNT deal a double-edged sword

Stephen A. Smith has been gunning for a lucrative raise in parallel with ESPN negotiating the NBA media rights for a while now. At that point, Smith was the face of the Disney-owned packaged with First Take and his self-titled show. According to most insiders before the season began in October, he was on the verge of closing a landmark deal.

At the same time, TNT had just gotten shut out of the NBA mediascape. That plunged Inside the NBA into doubt and most didn’t want the 35-year-old show ending. Smith called out TNT for ‘fumbling’ the negotiations and urged his friends at Inside the NBA “do not break that up.” He was appealing to other networks to pick up the show and reboot it. And it’s what happened.

Warner Bros. Discovery reached a settlement with the league that will see Inside the NBA licensed to ESPN as a whole. As exciting it is that Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley will continue their shenanigans with Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Ernie Johnson remains The Godfather of the show, questions soon loomed.

It’s obviously going to be a huge logistical nightmare. But one of the bigger questions is about Stephen A. Smith.

He is close to all the Inside Guys, he has a banter with them, and it was usually fun and entertaining the few times TNT and ESPN did joint broadcasts with them. But depending on how much ESPN tampers with a 35-year-old formula, it doesn’t feel plausible to throw in SAS’ headstrong personality in with the existing chemistry of the Inside Guys.

As fun as it is during All-Star specials and the NBA cup, week in, week out of Smith and Barkley loudly making their respective points would take away from the games. And the appeal of having Smith on a different show from this quartet was having the gaps in analysis, allow some developing story, and react to each other with new information.

But working out a schedule with NBC and Amazon as well as affiliates like SportsCenter won’t be easy either. Inside the NBA has usually taken Thursdays. But NBC did not pay a sizeable chunk of $76 billion just for ESPN to take the lion’s share. Something’s got to give. Possibly, Stephen A. Smith.

Charles Barkley & C0. tip the scales for Stephen A. Smith

The terms for gaining the Inside the NBA licenses are unspoken for and Smith hasn’t sealed the deal with ESPN yet. They also have to still negotiate extensions with Shaq, Chuck, Kenny, and Ernie, who will technically remain Turner employees.

However, if ESPN decides to put more emphasis on Inside the NBA, Smith won’t be the main focus of its basketball coverage that includes the NBA finals. Without that upper hand, it’s hard to see the network giving him a massive raise.

Perhaps Smith would agree to work at a discount, in which case ESPN has more money to funnel into its TNT-loaner. If Smith refuses, ESPN still has a sizable budget to put in its new show. Maybe the media veteran decides to go deeper into the football and hockey coverage, which makes it easier to solve the NBA schedules.

It all depends on whether Smith agrees to something between $100 million or nothing. For sure, if he chose to walk away, Charles Barkley would be the saddest. He wanted to save the jobs at TNT but he’s also been a notorious critic of ESPN for letting go several of its on-air roster. If they botch up Smith’s negotiations, they might just provoke Chuck into retirement again.