When news broke that Warner Bros. Discovery would not be retaining the U.S. broadcast rights to the NBA, there was considerable concern among consumers surrounding the future of the program. Inside the NBA, which has been on the air since 1989, has become immersed in the cultural zeitgeist of the league with its award-winning quartet of Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. Smith has remained aware of what is taking place throughout the process as the company initially sued the NBA, reached a settlement and inked a sublicensing agreement to present editions of the studio program on ESPN and ABC commencing next season.
The show is said to be airing around marquee live events as the league commences 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company, Comcast and Amazon, reportedly worth a collective $77 billion. TNT Sports will still create and produce the show from its Atlanta-based Studio J with the same team of personnel, something that has helped eliminate putative ambiguity and apprehension. Despite no longer airing live game broadcasts for the first time in four decades, Smith views the show as being a separate entity from these rights and considers it to be immersed within the league itself.
“Some of the details are still being worked out from a contractual standpoint, but I think we know that we’re going to have our continuum of producers and directors and talent, so our fear is gone,” Smith said. “You know what you’re getting when you ask for us and you want that, so why would you want something that’s been Emmy award-winning and has been voted as the best and has the best talent and then say, ‘Well, I don’t want that’?”
Rather than harkening on TNT Sports losing the rights, Smith knew that the show had various entities vying for their services. The inconspicuous chemistry exhibited between the cast members and production value has presumably helped the program set itself apart from other basketball studio presentations. The current iteration of the show will soon be airing on Disney platforms, but he is optimistic about the upcoming venture while remaining concentrated on the league calendar.
“Everyone would have loved to have us part of their family because we’re part of the league,” Smith said. “We’re not part of just TNT anymore or WBD, but we will be producing the show from our studios [with] the same look, the same vibe. It’ll just be different letters.”
Although Smith was not named an All-Star in his 10-year playing career, he managed to win two NBA championships and become one of the most recognizable and esteemed broadcasters in the business. Smith has been part of the coverage from before the time the company started broadcasting the All-Star Game in the 2002-03 season, marking the first time a cable network aired the exhibition and the last appearance in the contest by superstar Michael Jordan.
TNT Sports as a whole is entering its 40th season of All-Star coverage, solely broadcasting the Saturday night events beginning in 1985. The studio team has remained the same since 2012, which is when O’Neal was part of the crew for the first time broadcasting from Kia Center in Orlando, Fla.
While Inside the NBA is continuing beyond this season, NBC Sports will be televising both All-Star events under its 11-year pact reportedly worth $2.45 billion annually. Even so, this weekend will mark the final time under its existing contract that TNT Sports will present the festivities. Smith, Barkley and O’Neal are all serving as general managers for the All-Star Game, which has adopted a new mini-tournament format of four teams in three games.
“I think at some point, [with] whatever how it goes down, people understand what we bring to All-Star Weekend, and a lot of the game isn’t always the exciting part,” Smith said. “It’s the ancillary things around it, and for us not to be part of that would be probably, I think, foolish on just the league because there’s been such iconic things that have happened.”
Instead of approaching this assignment as the conclusion of an enduring tradition, Smith is thinking about the excitement connected with the event. This will mark another venture in his media career, which started upon his retirement from the league and providing studio analysis through the end of the regular season and playoffs in 1998. Even though longtime producer Tim Kiely voiced that Smith would be good on television, he assumed it is what he told everyone. Smith was proven wrong when he received a call in his retirement, and he quickly assimilated into learning how to communicate his insights in a comprehensive and cohesive manner.
“When you’re on television as a broadcasting person, you have to summarize things in 30 seconds where everyone could understand it,” Smith said. “So my thought process is, ‘I want my grandmother to understand it as well as one of the top coaches in the NBA,’ so I know I’m speaking to both [with] what I’m explaining or having a moment so everyone understands what I’m saying and not just a small few.”
Utilizing a boxing analogy, Smith compares himself to Floyd Mayweather in that he will jab people with information throughout the show before knocking them out by the end. Furthermore, he compared Barkley to Mike Tyson in possessing an immediate knockout kind of style, while explaining that O’Neal would resemble George Foreman, who was known for his heavy hitting style. Johnson, the esteemed studio host for the show and various other TNT Sports properties, is someone he would view as akin to Angelo Dundee, a distinguished trainer who worked with greats such as Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali.
“We’ve had all of those times – rocky times, tough times, crying times, laughing times,” Smith said. “We’ve seen births of babies on this show, like everything you can imagine, we’ve been through as a four, so that’s how it is. I don’t say it all the time, but people say we’re the best in the business at it, but I think that’s why we are the best in the business at it.”
Kiely has assisted in facilitating the success of Inside the NBA and recently returned to TNT Sports after a brief retirement. Yet the show deviates from generally accepted practices by the analysts not attending the production meetings, a suggestion Smith made following his first and only gathering of this kind. In a discussion with Kiely, Smith reminded him that it was Johnson’s job to know what was taking place and reach commercial breaks, whereas he was responsible for analyzing gameplay. Upon asking why he was there, Kiely concurred that Smith was right and would not need to come to these meetings.
“That was the conversation, and then when Charles [arrived], he never came because there’s nothing in the basketball game he’s not going to know, seen or heard or been part of,” Smith said. “So, it’s just a constant message, and also when Chuck came, it keeps us on our toes because now he has no idea what I’m going to say in that moment, and it keeps it fresh.”
Smith and his colleagues essentially try to lend their viewpoints to accurately discern what is being talked about or strategized, similar to when a coach emerges from the dugout to visit their pitcher. The program seeks to convey both the aggregate and nuanced angles while also not hesitating to criticize decisions or actions when necessary. Smith offers rebukes with evidence that backs his claim and refrains from discussing the heart, passion or integrity of players since he cannot precisely evaluate those characteristics. In fact, he avers that some podcast entertainment chooses to evaluate these immeasurable intangibles.
“I can’t measure those things,” Smith said. “I can’t show you that, but I can show you how to run back on defense. ‘He doesn’t get back on D, here he is, boom.’ Well, I’m running to the board. ‘Oh, he can’t get up on defense,’ [and] I can show it.”
In heading to the San Francisco Bay Area for NBA All-Star Weekend, Smith will continue holding his annual poker night and bash to benefit charity. Over the last two decades, he has worked with Feed the Children, Habitat for Humanity and several other organizations to raise money and support their causes. The event last year in Indianapolis, Ind. raised over $1 million for Education Reform Now, and he looks to meet and/or surpass that goal again.
“The reason I did it initially was [that] I feel like as the NBA, it’s important to not go into a city and just do a one-off, an All-Star Weekend and another,” Smith said. “I wanted something that was sustainable and that the community felt longer.”
With a variety of moving parts to be determined before next season, Smith is keeping his focus on the present moment and looking forward to NBA All-Star Weekend. By the time the season tips off next year, he could be taking part in an Inside Sports show that Warner Bros. Discovery said was in development upon settling its lawsuit with the league. On top of that, the company could utilize studio talent from the show on new content for air on its platforms. Having clarity in that the show will continue to exist, albeit in various forms on several networks, was reassuring for fans of the game.
“We understand that it was about us,” Smith said. “It was about our show, and our show is not just the four of us. It’s collectively everyone, but we are the principal. This wasn’t about when they lost the rights to the league, it was more about, ‘Okay, they didn’t want to lose the rights to the show because the show has become iconic and synonymous with the NBA.’ We had become the voice of the league, so they needed to have that in some way.”
As the NBA season approaches the stretch run ahead of the playoffs, Smith is continuing to educate and entertain the audience through displaying his cognition and personality. Refusing to succumb to sentiments of melancholy or despondency about the forthcoming change, he recognizes the business decisions that were made and is moving forward by cogently verbalizing what he sees. With an experienced and congenial team contributing to the program, he approaches the desk with avidity and fulfills his role on a show that has become inextricably linked with basketball.
“We are a part of the fabric, and if you go to an NBA game on Thursday night, you expect to see us,” Smith said. “You don’t just expect to see LeBron play. You expect to see Chuck, Shaq, Kenny and Ernie play too.”
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Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
