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“Sliding Doors Moments” are seemingly small moments that irrevocably change a life—or a relationship—forever.
Inspired by the eponymous 1998 film, the Gottman Institute defines them as “words or gestures communicated to others that—despite seeming inconsequential—deeply affect the most important relationships in our lives.”
In sports media, a Sliding Doors Moment could be a public comment that landed like a lead balloon, a strategic decision that backfired, or a key phone call not made. One of those came three and a half years ago.
Since the Knicks beat the Pacers on Thursday night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, TNT Sports will get at least one more NBA telecast before its 36-year run with the league ends.
It’s hard to imagine the NBA without TNT, and vice versa. In honor of the network’s extraordinary hoops coverage, we’ll begin with Part 1 of our series on Sliding Doors Moments in sports media. Namely, Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav’s November 2022 declaration that WBD didn’t “have to have the NBA.”
That moment during a New York investor conference quickly took on a life of its own. Maybe Zaslav was trying to play hardball with NBA commissioner Adam Silver as the league engaged TNT and ESPN in high-stakes negotiations for its billion-dollar media rights. Maybe the tough-talking CEO was just trying to impress Wall Street. It didn’t matter.
Whatever his motive, Zaslav’s comment went viral. Right or wrong, he put TNT management behind the proverbial eight ball as they fought to retain NBA media rights against deep-pocketed bidders ESPN, NBC Sports, and Amazon Prime Video. Internally, his comments infuriated the cast of TNT’s iconic Inside the NBA.
Superstar Charles Barkley said the comments only served to “piss off” Silver—and that the corporate “clowns” he worked for had “screwed up” NBA negotiations.
“The first thing is they came out and said, ‘We didn’t need the NBA.’ So, I think that probably pissed Adam [Silver] off,” Barkley told Dan Patrick. “I don’t know that. But when we merged, that’s the first thing our boss said, ‘We don’t need the NBA.’ Well, he don’t need it. But me, Kenny, Shaq, Ernie, and the rest of the people who work there, we need it. It just sucks right now.”
At the same time, WBD’s measured approach contrasted with that of fellow incumbent ESPN, which hotly pursued them as “existential rights.” During the two media companies’ exclusive negotiating period with the league, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro all but wrapped up an extension. WBD failed to do the same, meaning NBC and Prime could get their noses under the tent. “It was a top priority for us, and for our business, to get this done, and get it done quickly, assuming again we could acquire the items that were most important to us,” said Pitaro.
Zaslav tried to backtrack. By May 2024, he took a much different tone at another investor conference, declaring: “We love the NBA.”
To their credit, WBD and TNT fought to keep their NBA relationship alive, with the parent company taking the almost-unheard-of step of suing the league. In the end, the two sides settled an acrimonious suit after four months.
WBD/TNT kept the rights to Inside the NBA, and wound up licensing the show to ESPN for a package of Big 12 football and basketball games. WBD also ended up with an 11-year agreement for an all-international package of more than 100 NBA regular-season game telecasts in Northern Europe and Latin America, as well as a reimagined NBA Digital partnership among the league, TNT, and its Bleacher Report and House of Highlights brands. So WBD remains in business with the NBA. The league will move forward this fall with its 11-year, $77 billion media-rights deals that splits U.S. game rights between ESPN, NBC, and Prime.
Meanwhile, the ripples from the NBA’s new rights deals continue to spread across the industry. Both NBC and Prime have gone on multimillion-dollar hiring sprees for hoops TV talent, ranging from Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony at NBC to Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin, and Dirk Nowitzki at Prime. In the latest development, ESPN’s rising star sideline reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi could draw offers from The Association’s new media partners.
The Inside the NBA crew members are saying goodbye to their longtime TV home at TNT. As they gird themselves for an uncertain future, all the cast can think about is what might have been. As host Ernie Johnson said, “We have never taken for granted what we get to do here. It’s special.”
Coming up: ESPN and MLB break up after 30 years. If you have your own Sliding Door Moments, message senior media reporter Mike McCarthy at michael@frontofficesports.com.
