Although the New York Knicks ended up winning Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, any forthcoming loss in the series would mean the end of their season. Going into the game, it was possible that TNT Sports was broadcasting its last NBA game in the United States, which would mark the first time in just over four decades a current property owned by Warner Bros. Discovery would not have U.S. television rights for the league. Even though the league has signed media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), Comcast Corporation (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon (Prime Video) reportedly worth a collective $77 billion over 11 years, the award-winning TNT Sports studio show Inside the NBA featuring Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will be continuing.
The program will be airing on Disney platforms before select NBA games and marquee league events under a sublicensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery. While the show will still be produced by TNT Sports out of the Atlanta studios, it will no longer be airing on the network specifically. On top of that, an Inside Sports show is said to be in development for next season. Prior to what could have been the final version of Inside the NBA airing on TNT, O’Neal conveyed his appreciation and excitement for the future.
“There’s an old saying, ‘When something passes away, something is reborn,’” O’Neal explained. “Yes, it is the ending of the Inside the NBA on TNT, but it’s the new beginning for us. I’m glad we’re still together on whatever network we go to, and whatever network we’re coming to, we’re bringing the pain – just letting you know right now.”
O’Neal has been a member of TNT Sports since 2011 following his 19-year career playing professional basketball. During his time in the NBA, he won four NBA championships while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, and he is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. This past February, it was reported that O’Neal agreed to a contract extension with TNT Sports said to be worth more than $15 million per year.
“The show is still here, baby,” O’Neal said. “You can never kill the four horseman. We coming, and we coming to take spots, we coming to kick ass and we coming to take names, and we doing it our way. All the sadness about that show, we coming with a whole brand-new show and we don’t care who in our way. We coming to kick ass and take names.”
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