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After weeks of consternation for fans of basketball television, it looks like Warner Brothers is about to lose the rights to broadcast the NBA — and with it, the beloved basketball program Inside the NBA.
According to a report from Sports Business Journal, the NBA is about to cut deals with Disney (who owns ESPN), Amazon and NBC for broadcast rights to the NBA.
This leaves Warner Brothers, who owns TNT, a chance to match NBC's offer, but it appears unlikely that they will due to Warner Brothers being over $40 billion in debt.
The report indicates that the deal will go into effect starting in 2025, which will make 2024-2025 the last year Inside the NBA is on TV.
For those unfamiliar, Inside the NBA is TNT's pregame and postgame show starring Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. However, it's barely about basketball and more a venue for slapstick comedy while Shaq and Barkley riff off each other and Johnson and Smith act as the "straight men" in the troupe.
This early clip of Shaq shouting 'Ni Hao' demonstrates the approach the quartet took to basketball analysis.
The show is beloved by many on social media, and it'll be gone after one more season. This has set much of social media's laser sights on David Zaslav.
Zaslav once boasted that Warner Brothers "doesn't need the NBA," which may have put into motion Warner Brothers losing the NBA.
“Hello, police? Chris Paul is trying to beat me up!”
Inside the NBA was a treasure.
There will never be another panel with the chemistry of these four.
I can’t believe we’re losing this.
Send David Zaslav to The Hague. pic.twitter.com/T7jRBSOC5q— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) May 22, 2024
The impending loss of Inside the NBA is yet another reason social media users have to critique Zaslav, who has previously drawn the internet's ire for canceling Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme for tax write-offs.
It will also make the show's final season surreal for fans, who will now have to live with the bittersweet knowledge that any joke Barkley makes about "fat San Antonio women" could be his last.
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