After a wild offseason in which the NBA scored the second-richest media pact in U.S. sports history and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news of his own retirement, the league’s media partners are racing to prepare for the tip-off of the new season on Oct. 22.
ESPN will again boast the “A” package of NBA games as well as offer exclusive coverage of the NBA Finals on Disney sister network ABC. With its “B” package, TNT Sports is likely entering its final year of live game coverage, with the NBA saying its bid to retain rights served as a counteroffer and not a match of Amazon Prime Video’s offer. This could also be the swan song for Charles Barkley’s incomparable Inside the NBA, the best sports studio show in history.
It’s a time of transition for The Association and its TV partners. At 39 years old, Lakers star LeBron James remains the face of the league. But his career is year-to-year at this point. Steph Curry of the Warriors and Kevin Durant of the Suns aren’t much younger at 36. So the NBA and its media partners are looking for the league’s next face. TV networks are already placing bets.
ESPN just hired NBA writer Michael C. Wright to cover Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs’ 20-year-old French phenom, in San Antonio. He’ll join forces with Tim MacMahon, who’s also spent a lot of time covering Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić in Dallas for ESPN. The Wright hire has echoes of the company embedding Brian Windhorst with King James more than a decade ago as the league’s biggest star jumped from the Cavaliers to the Heat. (Remember ESPN launching The Heat Index vertical just to cover the Big Three of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh?)
I asked Wright about the challenge—and opportunity—of covering the 7-foot-4 Frenchman, who has an unparalleled combination of height, wingspan, and finesse. Wembanyama was arguably a top-15 player in the league during the second half of his rookie season. No wonder ESPN plans to show nine of his games this season.
“On a night-to-night basis, you’re going to see something that you’ve probably never seen before. He’s that generational talent. … That’s what makes him box office. He just does things that you’re not used to seeing humans do,” Wright tells Front Office Sports.
This will be the final season under the NBA’s current media-rights deals. The league’s 11-year, $77 billion cycle of media rights with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon kicks in with the 2025–2026 season and runs through the 2035–2036 season. That pact is second only to the NFL’s 11-year, $110 billion rights deals. So let’s unpack the latest news and rumors surrounding the league’s incumbent and future media-rights partners.
ESPN
As usual, the biggest drama is at the four-letter network. Wojnarowski shocked his bosses when he announced his retirement from journalism to serve as GM of the basketball program at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. The scoop king’s successors could include Adam Schefter—who would cover both the NFL and NBA as what a source called the “Ultimate Insider”—as well as Shams Charania, Chris Haynes, and Jeff Passan. ESPN could also go with a closer-by-committee approach with the team of Windhorst, Ramona Shelburne, Marc J. Spears, Bobby Marks, and Tim Bontemps.
In a surprise move, ESPN also let go of respected hoops scribe Zach Lowe and his seven-figure annual salary.
After getting burned by the back-to-back departures of Doc Rivers and JJ Redick, ESPN is mulling whether to add another analyst to its lead NBA broadcast team of Doris Burke and Mike Breen. The network has time to try out contenders like Richard Jefferson in the role. The broadcast team doesn’t really get going until Christmas Day. If they do promote someone internally, my money would be on Jefferson.
ESPN’s 100-game regular-season coverage will tip off Oct. 23 with a doubleheader featuring the Bucks against the 76ers and the Suns against the Clippers. ESPN platforms will exclusively show all five of the NBA’s Christmas Day games.
TNT Sports
There’s no justice in sports media. Barring a surprise win in its matching rights lawsuit, TNT is on the verge of losing its relationship with the NBA despite 40 award-winning years. If that happens, we can probably say goodbye to Inside the NBA, one of the greatest TV shows in history. The good news for TNT is that Charles Barkley announced he would not work for another TV partner. I’m looking forward to watching a completely unplugged Sir Charles go for the jugular this season. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them both on the shows we currently have—and new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me,” Barkley said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Barkley expanded his media empire with an investment from RedBird IMI. (RedBird IMI, of which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is also an investor in Front Office Sports.)
TNT will tip off its 65-game regular-season schedule with an opening-night doubleheader Oct. 22 featuring the NBA champion Celtics against the Knicks and the Lakers facing the Timberwolves.
NBC and Prime Video
From what I hear, NBC Sports and Amazon Prime Video have begun the process of scouting the talent they want to cover the NBA starting with the 2025–2026 season. Both are interested in pending free-agent insider Charania, a telegenic 30-year-old who appeals to the league’s young, diverse fan base. Charania recently exited Stadium. His current deals with The Athletic and FanDuel TV expire shortly. But The Athletic won’t let him go without a fight. ESPN could also swoop in with a big offer, the way it raided Fox Sports to hire both Troy Aikman and Joe Buck for Monday Night Football.
Two other free agents to watch: Haynes, who’s leaving TNT, and rising star Jake Fischer, who announced he’s moving on from Yahoo Sports. Meanwhile, an entire industry full of NBA play-by-play announcers, analysts, reporters, and producers are eagerly waiting for the biggest sports media gold rush around The Association in decades.
