The NBA is preparing to commence new 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company, Comcast Corporation and Amazon reportedly worth a collective $77 billion. Even though Warner Bros. Discovery is now in its final season with U.S. live game broadcast rights for the NBA, it will be sublicensing its award-winning studio program, Inside the NBA, to Disney to air on ESPN and ABC throughout the season. The cast of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal frequently receive plaudits for their rapport and chemistry on the airwaves, along with their willingness to hold people accountable. 

Colin Cowherd recently extolled Barkley and O’Neal for this and contextualized them as an anomaly to the media members throughout the rest of the league. Whereas he believes that media tasked with covering the NFL is tough and does not hesitate to criticize players or coaches, he articulated that basketball media at the college and professional level is soft and tries to “curry favor” with star players. As a result, Cowherd conveyed that this has resulted in a dearth of media willing to be critical towards the audience, prompting him to make adjustments on The Herd.

“I’ve stopped bringing on certain NBA reporters who are good people, but it’s all fluff,” Cowherd said. “‘Everybody’s great.’ Well, let’s address load management.”

Cowherd added that baseball has a similar problem with the fourth estate, but he specifically pointed out FOX Sports reporter Tom Verducci as someone who goes against this ostensible current. For example, Cowherd referenced how Verducci was the first person to illuminate the presence of steroids around the sport, along with the protracted length of games and how contests needed to be shortened. Both of these observations led to changes to preserve the purity of the sport while also evolving for the next generation of consumers.

“It takes sometimes a strong opinion from a very notable person to push back on a sport, and I think Barkley and Shaq are the guys that are like, ‘Why aren’t you playing? Why are you resting?,’” Cowherd said. “I want a show that is hard and has teeth and bites into the players. They’re not P.R. firms. My job isn’t to be a P.R. guy.”

Despite Cowherd acknowledging that it can be argued that there are moments when Barkley is too critical; however, he contended that the product is better than what is offered on other television networks. In fact, he argued that some of the coverage on ESPN is “mostly fluff” and can lean towards conveying positive sentiments towards the players. Cowherd clarified that he was not talking about everybody on the network, but he also stated how it can feel like the broadcasts sometimes emit a feel as if they are owned by teams themselves.

“It’s like, ‘Guys, it’s okay to criticize players,’” Cowherd said. “I think Barkley and Shaq provide – they’re the outlier; they’re the dogs on TV that criticize.”

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