The NBA Is Nearing A $76B TV Deal With ESPN, NBC, And Amazon Which Means Life Without Inside The NBA Is Now Very Real
Mike Kirschbaum. Getty Images.God dammit. While this news technically isn't "surprising" given the fact that all the leaks/signs/reports had been pointing to this reality, now that it's on the verge of becoming real I have to admit, I do not care for it one bit. In fact, I think it stinks. As a consumer of Adam Silver's product, I don't get any bit of that $76B and while in theory I guess this will help the salary cap go up and allow teams to spend more to improve their roster, I don't really care about that either.
What I care about is being able to turn on my TV and watch Inside The NBA during the basketball season. Now that it's pretty much official that TNT is out, that of course means that next season will in theory be our last time being able to watch the greatest show on TV
Our last hope is what, that someone like Amazon decides to fork over a shit ton of money to bring the band back together on a different network? What's the deal with Chuck's production company, can everyone just join that and sell it to someone? They've all said that Ernie probably won't leave TNT and frankly, I'm not sure the show works without him. You can do it sure, but I think we all can agree that it won't be the same.
I get that it's Adam Silver's job to secure the most money possible, and $76B over 11 years is a decent chunk of change, so in that regard I guess he did well. But as fans, I can't imagine giving a shit about that. We care about entertainment. We care about something that has become an institution. We care about watching Chuck and the guys every week. So in that regard, Adam Silver (and Warner Bros) failed. If you look at those splits between the networks and what they are paying, you're telling me Warner Bros couldn't get to those numbers? Are they that poor?
At this point, all we can do is hold onto the sliver of hope that somehow, someway, one of these networks that will now carry the NBA will figure out a way to bring in the Inside The NBA crew. I'm at the point where I don't really care where they do it, host a YouTube livestream for all I care, we'll all be there. Experiencing NBA basketball without Inside The NBA is not a world I really want to live in, so I'm going to need Jeff Bezos or someone to figure it the fuck out. If they need some extra money to close the gap to make it happen, they can use my Amazon Prime membership funds to seal the deal. Just get it done.
