Throughout the Western Conference Finals, the NBA on TNT has presented an alternate broadcast, NBA X Live, featuring on-air talent Taylor Rooks and Channing Frye. Three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year and 21-year league veteran Jamal Crawford joined the program for Game 2 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks.
With Minnesota holding a 108-106 lead with 12.8 seconds to go, Rooks asked Crawford what he thought would happen in the situation. Crawford prognosticated that Mavericks guard Luka Dončić would have the basketball and shoot a stepback three-point shot, adding that he would walk off the set if he was right. Sure enough, the play unfolded exactly how Crawford predicted and resulted in a 109-108 Dallas win and 2-0 series advantage.
The accurate prediction was a subject of discussion when Crawford joined The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN to discuss the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday. Show host Pat McAfee was curious to know if Crawford was able to decipher the outcome of Game 2 because of a supposed penchant for predicting plays while he was playing in the league or the longevity that he achieved.
“I think it’s a little bit of both, but to be honest with you, I always had a feel,” Crawford said. “I think my feel is one of my greatest gifts, and I saw it – I closed my eyes and I saw it. And I wouldn’t even say it as much as I did, but Taylor kept pressing me on details, and I just saw it exactly how it played out, which is crazy.”
Shortly thereafter, the discussion transitioned to the future of Inside the NBA after Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly not secured National Basketball Association media rights beyond next season. The league is reportedly in the process of formalizing deals with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal and Amazon that would nearly triple its collective media rights fee. While Warner Bros. Discovery is said to have the ability to match rights, there is ambiguity surrounding the breadth of that contractual provision.
As evinced over the last several weeks, there is internal and external concern surrounding Inside the NBA, which features host Ernie Johnson and analysts Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. Barkley recently appeared on the Dan Patrick Show where he excoriated his TNT bosses and claimed that he could look to take the show independent with his production company.
In a recent article by Tania Ganguli of The New York Times, it was reported that O’Neal stated that they were instructed not to talk since Barkley’s outburst, something later confirmed by a network public relations official. In fact, Johnson is said to have castigated Ganguli for discussing the future of the program with Barkley while in an elevator alongside his colleagues.
Crawford, being a former player in the NBA and current TNT analyst, understands the significance of Inside the NBA and the role it plays within the basketball landscape. McAfee expressed to him that it feels like the show sets the conversation for the entire sport and feels embedded within the culture.
“There’s some people out here [that] say, ‘I don’t even watch the game. I tune in for pregame, postgame and after the game to see what they’re going to say,’ so they’ve always had the pulse,” Crawford explained, referring to Inside the NBA. “And for them, if this whole thing shakes out – I don’t know much about it right now; it’s a lot of conversation – but they transcend sport. They’re almost like The Golden Girls, like they got their own sitcom.”
Crawford explained that the show has been the backdrop and soundtrack of basketball for over 25 years, prompting McAfee to state that the leverage the show has is a bad thing for TNT. Moreover, he mentioned that TNT could opt to keep the show without having basketball rights, although Barkley, Smith and O’Neal all reportedly have opt-out clauses in their contracts should the network lose rights to the NBA. The three studio analysts, along with Johnson, inked 10-year contract extensions together in October 2022.
“They can get access to arenas even if they’re not doing the games because of who they are, so maybe TNT’s able to keep it together,” McAfee said, “but if not, there’s a lot of big pockets that are looking to get into live sports.”
