A lot has been said about TNT’s Inside the NBA over the past several months, as there have been fears that the long-running sports talk show will be cancelled after the 2024-2025 season. That’s reportedly been due to business hurdles linked to contract negotiations for the broadcast rights to the aforementioned sports league. It goes without saying that the situation has looked grim in recent weeks and, all the while, co-host Charles Barkley has made wild statements while advocating for the series. Now, the beloved program has received some good news and, amid that, a clip of the crew recalling Ernie Johnson’s cancer diagnosis has me in my feelings.
What’s Going On With The Efforts To Keep Inside The NBA On The Air?
It was reported months ago that the NBA was circling three separate broadcast packages for its broadcast rights. The three entertainment entities involved were ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and NBC, which apparently swooped in with a major offer. It was said that Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT Sports, was not in a financial position to match any offer in order to maintain its piece of the proverbial pie. But, as announced this week, WBD will now officially match Prime Video’s $20 billion offer, which would amount to $1.8 billion per year. TNT’s sports brand, which didn’t explicitly name Amazon, released a statement:
In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties. Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it. We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.
This is a major development, to say the least, especially since it was previously reported that WBD dropped out of negotiations due to the hefty sum the league was asking for. Per THR, the entertainment conglomerate – which apparently has its share of debts at the moment, can cover the payment since it’s received a letter of credit. Despite that, the trade also reports that there’s still work to be done, as an NBA spokesperson says that the league is “in the process of reviewing” the proposal. Nevertheless, this still marks a major step forward for Inside, and it’ll likely delight fans.
Another Viral Inside The NBA Clip Is Making The Rounds, And It’s Very Sweet
While Inside the NBA’s fate has remained in limbo, fans have been rallying around the show by way of social media. Some have taken to the web to share funny clips of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal and more classic Inside moments as a way of paying tribute to the series, which began in 1989. One of the latest clips to make the rounds actually comes from the show’s official account on X. It’s a portion lifted from The Inside Story, a four-part docuseries that aired in 2021 and covered the history of the beloved sports chatfest. As you can see in the video below, longtime host Ernie Johnson recalls the moment he told Barkley (who's retiring in 2024) and fellow host Kenny Smith about his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis. The result is a sweet and also humorous exchange between the media personalities:
“That’s our show right there" 🤣🤣 The Inside the NBA crew's chemistry is one of a kind pic.twitter.com/dLoX3jRzKiJuly 23, 2024
This moment is one of the best representations of what the TNT postgame show is, and Ernie Johnson shares that same sentiment in the video. Johnson’s remembrance of his cancer diagnosis speaks to the deeper conversations that he and his colleagues are known to have on air. And Shaq’s curiosity over whether Kenny Smith’s tears were similar to NBA player Joel Embiid’s represent the jokes and barbs the co-anchors share. I don’t know what it is, but Johnson just has such a way with words. I was also in my feelings when he gave an emotional Emmys acceptance speech earlier this year. He truly is one of the best sportscasters in the game and one of the finest human beings around.
One would hope that we’ll get to see the veteran journalist and his TV partners in crime do what they do best beyond next season. News of Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to match Prime Video’s offer is encouraging but, ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see if all the variables end up working in the company’s (and fans') favor.
Inside the NBA is still set to air amid the 2024 TV schedule later this year, as it’ll return in the fall once basketball season starts up again.
