BIDDING WAR
ESPN in audacious bid to sign whole Inside the NBA team after TNT rights end with Charles Barkley commanding $20m salary
Charles Barkley himself could cost a network $20 million per year
TNT Sports has lost the battle to retain NBA media rights, and now rival networks are looking to swoop in and steal their personalities.
With the NBA parting ways with TNT Sports, Inside the NBA will also come to an end after the 2024-25 season, leaving the cast with no work.
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Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith can all seek new opportunities after the final NBA season on TNT Sports, and one network already is looking to scoop them up.
ESPN is reportedly showing interest in reuniting the cast of Inside the NBA on their network as they were able to retain basketball rights.
Charles Barkley alone could command a $20 million per year salary from any of the three networks that secured NBA rights, ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video, according to Front Office Sports.
"The Chuckster could command $20 million-plus offers from the NBA’s new trio of rights partners," wrote FOS.
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"ESPN is already eying Barkley and the entire cast of Inside the NBA, say my sources. Ditto for Prime."
Prime Video is also making a hard push to recruit the cast of Inside the NBA.
Head of sports for Prime Video, Jay Marine, spoke highly of the Inside the NBA team and told Front Office Sports how much he respects them.
Prime even modeled their programming for Thursday Night Football around Inside the NBA.
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"Inside the NBA, in our opinion, is the gold standard for studio programming," Marine told Front Office Sports.
"I’m a huge fan. We’re all big fans. It is so entertaining. Those guys are hilarious. The chemistry is off the charts.
'I wish I had a job,' claims Charles Barkley as he addresses Inside the NBA's future on TNT and makes LinkedIn joke
"In fact, it’s what we really held up as the standard and our inspiration when we were designing our TNF pregame show.
"We’ll have to see how all this plays out. We just signed the deal. They’ll have no shortage of options depending on what they want to do.”
After hearing that Inside the NBA could be saved on another network, NBA fans begged ESPN to pull the trigger and sign the cast to a deal.
"NBA fans all need this to happen," one fan said.
What the new TV deal means for the NBA?
By The U.S. Sun's Assistant Sports Editor Damian Burchardt.
THE new TV rights deal is promising to be a humongous win for NBA players.
The league is set to more than double the revenue coming from its media partners, pocketing about $6.9 billion per year, which will inevitably lead to a huge salary cap spike in 2025-26.
That is going to send the value of player contracts skyrocketing.
Projected figures suggest we might see the first $100 million-per-year deal being signed soon.
Currently, Boston Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum is projected to earn the highest single-season salary in NBA history, collecting $71.5 million in 2029-30.
If TNT Sports successfully matches one of the offers to maintain its decades-long partnership with the league, hoops fans will be on the winning side too.
The network's flagship, Inside the NBA, is a one-of-a-kind sports entertainment show, as evidenced by ESPN's ongoing failure to come up with its own version of the program in recent years.
The NBA wouldn't be the same without Kenny and Ernie trying to make sense of Shaq and Chuck's never-ending bickering every Tuesday night.
"PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN, NBA COULD BE SAVED," another fan said.
"This would do numbers for ESPN," a third fan said.
"This would be a huge win for ESPN," a fourth fan said.
"This needs to happen! This is the best crew in the NBA," a fifth fan said.
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The only thing that could hold up the Inside the NBA crew from moving networks is Ernie Johnson, as he previously said he didn't want to leave TNT despite losing NBA rights.
If he couldn't be swayed Inside the NBA wouldn't feel the same without him at the desk.
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