The sports media world is gearing up for a gold rush on TV and digital talent.
The NBA’s signing of media-rights deals worth $77 billion over 11 years sets the stage for the biggest hoops hiring spree in decades. Careers will rise and fall as multimillion-dollar contracts get dished out. Chess players are making their opening moves.
NBA rights partners Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video are already eyeing potential talent hires among analysts, play-by-play announcers, reporters, and producers, Front Office Sports has learned. Candidates are working their contacts—and putting their agents on speed dial. TNT Sports is preparing for what could be its final season of NBA coverage after a 40-year relationship. The company has Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson signed to long-term contracts. But would the network (which is currently suing the NBA to keep its rights) stand in its way if one or more of that foursome wants to explore the greener pastures of free agency? Especially given parent Warner Bros. Discovery is saddled with $40 billion in debt?
While Barkley has publicly pledged his loyalty to TNT, that’s not stopping NBA partners from expressing interest. “I would be lying if we said we weren’t interested in Charles,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, when I asked him about Barkley at the FOS Tuned In summit in New York. “I think the entire industry is interested in Charles. He’s really that special. We’ll see.”
Ditto for Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal. “If Charles were available, we’d certainly love to have that conversation with him,” Lazarus told us. “We’ve known him for a long time. We’ve known him from the time that we were there in 2000 or so. So we think that Charles adds a great element to everything he does. He’s been a guest on our shows. If he were to be available, certainly we’d be talking to him. Unless Burke Magnus talks to him first.”
There’s a feeling of calm before the storm as job candidates expectantly wait for the first dominoes to fall. There’s time for maneuvering, offers, and counteroffers. The new media rights don’t kick in until the 2025–2026 season. But the NBA’s partners would like their hires in place during the next regular season, say my sources, so they can crank up their promotional machines for 2025.
“There’s no gun to their heads, but they’re already identifying talent,” said one source directly involved in talent negotiations. “They’re already speaking to people—and will continue to have conversations.”
So what happens next? Aside from TNT, let’s zero in on the three main players slated to split NBA rights into the 2030s: incumbent Disney, NBC, and Prime Video.
The Front-Runners
Start with ESPN, which will pay $2.6 billion a year to maintain the league’s “A” package, including exclusive rights to the NBA Finals. Given that ESPN has a 22-year relationship with the league, it’s in the best shape. But Magnus has some key decisions to make with his No. 1 announcing team.
After dropping No. 1 game analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, ESPN paired play-by-play announcer Mike Breen and analyst Doris Burke first with Doc Rivers, then with JJ Redick. Both hires were short-lived, with Rivers and Redick leaving for head coaching jobs with the Bucks and Lakers, respectively. I asked Magnus whether he’ll roll with a two-person or three-person broadcast crew this season. He’s still weighing his options.
“We don’t necessarily have to decide any of those things immediately,” Magnus said.
Roundball Peacock
The return of NBC has generated the most excitement among media veterans and hoops fans. There’s no doubt about the network’s lead play-by-play announcer: That’s Mike Tirico, who calls everything from Sunday Night Football to Olympic events. Given their strong work during the 2024 Paris Olympics, there’s a good chance you’ll see Dwyane Wade and Noah Eagle call games, too.
Barkley would be a home run, of course, for NBC’s studio coverage. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see NBC connect to its golden era of NBA coverage in the 1990s by having Bob Costas make some appearances. As a surprise for viewers, NBC brought the former NBA/Olympics host back for an on-air sit-down with Tirico in Paris. It also has a deal to bring back John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” theme song for its NBA coverage.
Prime Time
The wild card, of course, is Amazon, which has scored its first U.S.-based rights deal with the NBA. I would expect Jay Marine, Prime’s chief of sports, to follow the playbook he’s laid out on NFL’s Thursday Night Football by hiring a crew of industry veterans, freshly off-the-court stars, and promising rookies to call games and provide studio coverage. He will have plenty of talent to choose from.
Van Gundy and Jackson would be the biggest available names. They were two-thirds of ESPN’s No. 1 team for 16 years. There’s also a plethora of insiders who can double both as on-air talents and social media newsbreakers. Shams Charania, one of the two top NBA insiders along with Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, is a pending free agent. All three of his deals with The Athletic, Stadium, and FanDuel expire this year, according to the New York Post. “He’s young, connected, one of the best at what he does,” noted a source. NBA insider Chris Haynes is leaving TNT after five years, noted the Post.
