The conversation surrounding the future of media rights in the National Basketball Association has continued to amplify over the last several months, much of which is centered on the future of the NBA on TNT. On Wednesday, The New York Times released an article that discussed the situation surrounding the show that included studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal revealing that the cast of the show had been asked not to speak on the situation. Charles Barkley scorched Warner Bros. Discovery executives while on the Dan Patrick Show last week and provided his thoughts on the situation surrounding the media rights.
Adam Lefkoe, who hosts NBA coverage for TNT, was a guest on the Thursday edition of the Dan Patrick Show, was asked to be on the show by producer Todd Fritz and obliged. Before he began the interview, Patrick said that his goal was to get Lefkoe in trouble in what seemed like a sarcastic manner, and then asked if there were any topics that they could not discuss pertaining to the broadcast property.
“I’ve been prepped, you know,” Lefkoe said. “Because Todd was like, ‘Hey, love to have you come on and talk about the Western Conference Finals,’ and I was like, ‘Sure, Todd.’ I was like, ‘I’m sure you want to break down how Dereck Lively has 108 dunks and [Maxi] Kleber only has six and his impact on the glass is a huge difference.’”
Lefkoe is a co-host of The Big Podcast with Shaq featuring O’Neal and is often utilized as a fill-in host when Ernie Johnson is absent from Inside the NBA. With his experience and insight into the NBA on TNT property, Lefkoe had a feeling that the Dan Patrick Show would want to address the ambiguity surrounding its future with the league.
“We know how this goes,” Lefkoe said. “You got Charles out here. When Charles came on your show, I jokingly hit up a P.R. person and said, ‘Those talking points you gave him were great. I can’t believe you told him to say those things.’”
Lefkoe later explained that he did not believe anything to be above Barkley’s paygrade, a sentiment that Barkley himself gave the impression of indirectly cosigning while appearing on SI Media with Jimmy Traina this week. Barkley said that executives with the network know better than to bother him and revealed that he did not have a relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery president and chief executive officer David Zaslav outside of meeting him at the company’s Upfront in New York City. Lefkoe, however, did receive information when he was recently getting his makeup done and running into higher-ups at the company.
“They just said, ‘Listen, it’s not over, we’re still talking to them,’” Lefkoe explained. “You still have Zaslav talking to Adam Silver; they’re still really, really trying. That’s what I’m being told.”
Recalling a conversation Lefkoe had with his agent regarding TNT Sports’ reported ability to match rights, he remembers thinking that lawyers do not often complete paperwork in a timely manner and do not want to forsake billable hours. Throughout the process, he has found it amusing that different outlets have posted pictures of the Inside the NBA cast with text explaining that the show was over with no further context.
Warner Bros. Discovery currently pays the NBA a reported $1.2 billion annually for media rights to the league, which expires following the conclusion of next season. The company, which has broadcast NBA games on its networks since the 1984-85 season, reportedly did not reach a deal with the league during its exclusive 90-day negotiating window as an incumbent rightsholder. Patrick then wanted to know Lefkoe’s plan to supplant Johnson at the network, to which he explained that he stays late just to watch Inside the NBA in studio and watch the games with the cast.
“And then Ernie comes in and he goes, ‘Kid, what are you still doing here?,’ and then I am like, ‘Yes, now I get my six minutes of Ernie time before he goes into his bunker and starts working,’ and so it’s one of the greatest thrills of my life for him to be my colleague,” Lefkoe said. “I don’t think that he’s replaceable.”
Lefkoe reminisced that he was watching a game recently with a friend of his who had several writers and comedians in attendance. Upon their finding out about his role with the NBA on TNT, he was informed by one of them that Inside the NBA is a representation of perfected comedy. Off of that point, Lefkoe was curious to know how Johnson plays into that paradigm, to which it was explained that Johnson is indicative of rules that are disobeyed by the studio analysts.
“He calls himself the worst traffic cop ever, but he creates the boundaries that they break,” Lefkoe said. “That’s why the ages there are so great because Shaq gets to be 15 again because Ernie to him is still Grandpa Ernie.”
