Stephen A. Smith doesn’t think Michael Jordan will hold back his true thoughts on TV.

At upfronts last month, NBC announced that Jordan would be a special contributor when it resumes its NBA coverage later this year. Basketball fans have been cautiously optimistic that we will get the version of Jordan from the Last Dance documentary, where he chomped cigars and was ruthless about rivals and critics, as opposed to a politician hesitant to offend his constituents.

Smith appeared on Patrick Bet-David’s PBD Podcast last week and made it sound like Jordan, whom he talks to with some regularity, is ready to speak with candor. 

“Let me tell you something about Michael Jordan: He’s going to be brutally honest—I can assure you that,” Smith said. “He’s not going to be somebody who’s going to be passive. … The Michael Jordan I know, when talking basketball, he is as candid as it gets. He ain’t trying to hurt nobody’s feelings. He ain’t trying to be insulting—but he’s going to tell you what’s going on.” 

“I don’t think he’s going to be passive at all. I really, really don’t, and I’m actually proud of him for doing it because, with the Jordan brand and him being worth over $2 billion, he don’t need this,” Smith continued. 

Smith said he urged Jordan to take on more public commentary, telling him to “stop acting like you have nothing to say about basketball now that you’re retired—you talk about it all the damn time!” 

Smith added Jordan will call him to disagree with things he said on-air, and while he’s not as aggressive about it as Kobe Bryant used to be, he’s “candid.”

“I don’t think he’s going to be shy about saying what he sees—at all,” Smith concluded. “As a matter of fact, if he is, he’s going to have to deal with me because I’m going to be in his ear telling him, ‘You’re getting shy now. That’s what we’re doing? That ain’t the MJ I know!’”

Elsewhere in the segment, Bet-David referenced internet rumors that NBC is paying Jordan $40 million annually. A source tells Front Office Sports that this number, which is about twice what Charles Barkley makes per year from TNT, is inaccurate. NBC declined to comment. 

Before this weekend’s epic French Open, some thought TNT Sports had blundered by paying $65 million annually for rights that previously cost NBC Sports and Tennis Channel $12 million a year. But after Sunday’s thrilling men’s final at Roland-Garros, TNT can safely argue it’s got its money’s worth. It’s also a sign there may be something to Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav’s widely derided assertion that the media giant does not need the NBA.

Carlos Alcaraz’s thrilling five-set win over Jannik Sinner was a match for the ages. It was one of those sporting events that makes people pick up their phones and tell friends and family to turn on the TV now. Pair that epic with Coco Gauff’s win in the women’s final, and ratings should be strong for TNT’s first time televising the event. TNT “aced” its debut French Open coverage, making it feel like the prestigious event that it is. 

ESPN controls U.S. media rights to the other three Grand Slam tournaments: the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open. With young stars like Alcaraz and Gauff, the sport is poised for a resurgence. Which would make TNT Sports CEO Luis Silberwasser’s 10-year deal with the French Tennis Federation look like a wise investment. As ESPN’s Mike Greenberg wrote on X/Twitter on Sunday: “Carlos Alcaraz is 22. Coco Gauff is 21. We saw the future of tennis in Paris this week, and it looks sensational.”

WBD’s TNT was the odd network out after 36 years when the NBA signed 11-year media deals worth an eye-popping $77 billion with ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon Prime Video in 2024. TNT will save between $20 billion (Prime) and $27 billion (NBC) in rights fees from 2025 to 2036. That’s a boatload of cash that can be sunk into rights (and, considering WBD’s current quandary, debt reduction). The green shoots from TNT’s strategy to invest in other sports are starting to sprout.

While it was still negotiating with the NBA last year, TNT cut a five-year deal with ESPN to sublicense two first-round games of the College Football Playoff. Now it’s expected to sublicense at least one CFP semifinal game from 2026 to 2028. 

Once it knew the NBA was out the door, TNT got busy, scooping up rights to the French Open, Mountain West Conference, five NASCAR races, and Unrivaled women’s 3-on-3 basketball. It also licensed the iconic Inside the NBA to ESPN for a package of Big 12 football and basketball games. Looking ahead, TNT could pursue the MLB rights, including the Home Run Derby, that expire at ESPN after this year.

If you combine TNT’s new sports-rights deals with its existing NHL, MLB, March Madness, and FIFA soccer rights, the network will still air a lot of sports over the coming years. The money it saves could be used to tackle WBD’s $37 billion debt load as the media giant splits into two publicly traded entities: a Streaming & Studios operation including WBD’s film and TV productions, DC Studios, HBO, HBO Max, and WBD’s film and TV libraries, and a separate Global Networks business that will include TNT Sports in the U.S., Bleacher Report, CNN, Discovery, and free-to-air channels in Europe.

It’s probably good news for TNT that it won’t report to Zaslav anymore. Despite popping up in front-row seats at many of TNT’s biggest sporting events—including Roland-Garros and the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals—his words indicate he never seemed to value sports rights. TNT superstar Charles Barkley believes it was his comment nearly three years ago that WBD didn’t “have to have the NBA” that ultimately led to the breakup with The Association. At the same time, the new TNT could end up televising more sports in the future, and at a cheaper price tag. Maybe there was a method to Zas’s madness.

Major League Baseball has acquired an undisclosed minority stake in Jomboy Media, a fast-growing and often irreverent digital media company.

The equity deal sees the league looking to extend its presence among baseball content creators, and the agreement will involve Jomboy Media gaining access to league and team IP, participating in merchandise and sponsorship collaborations, and having a presence for some of its content on league platforms.

The two sides will additionally work to have current stars, as well as media and celebrity partners, appear on Jomboy Media’s The Warehouse Games, a sports league modeled after backyard games.

Jomboy Media is perhaps best known for its series of humorous lip-reading videos in which it breaks down often profane on-field arguments involving managers, players, and umpires. The company, however, has built a much larger business spanning social media, digital video, and podcasts, in the process garnering more than 93 million social engagements last year and nearly 400 million video views in its history. 

“We think having a strong content creator community is important for baseball,” MLB EVP of media and business development Kenny Gersh tells Front Office Sports. “Having people out there with an authentic voice talking about baseball is good for us, and we want to support that where we can, encourage that, and in this case, invest in it. … A big part of this is getting them in front of more baseball fans than they already are.”

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Gersh termed the deal “a simple minority investment” and “enough to align our interests.” The agreement includes no editorial control or oversight by MLB. The league also will not be obligated to amplify every piece of Jomboy Media content. 

The deal, actively in development for roughly a year, arrives just days after MLB made a separate investment in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. While drawn from a similar venture fund in which the league invests in outside businesses, there is no additional connection between the two pacts. 

“We get to keep doing what we’re doing, creating unique content and building community, but now with a lot more access, and this will open a lot of doors for us,” Jomboy Media CEO Courtney Hirsch tells FOS.