As expected, the NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced on Monday that they’ve settled their months-long legal battle, with Disney and WBD essentially making a trade of programming rights. TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show will air on ESPN/ABC beginning in 2025, while TNT will get the rights to broadcast 13 Big 12 football games and 15 Big 12 basketball games per season.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic explores the role that ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, who reached out directly to Luis Silberwasser of TNT Sports, played in the deal.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Traina of SI.com notes that one roadblock remains before “Inside the NBA” makes the move to Disney — Shaquille O’Neal‘s contract expires on July 1, 2025 and will need to be renewed. According to Traina, O’Neal wants to remain with the long-running program, but has been frustrated by announcements celebrating that the show will go on unchanged while his own future is still up in the air.
A source tells Marchand that O’Neal is ultimately expected to remain with “Inside the NBA,” though Traina notes that the former NBA MVP could explore other options with NBC or Amazon before ultimately deciding whether or not to stay put.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Veteran swingman Tony Snell has replaced Keita Bates-Diop on the Team USA roster for the upcoming FIBA AmeriCup qualifying games, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The U.S. squad will play two games in Washington, D.C. during this month’s qualifier window, hosting Puerto Rico on November 22 and the Bahamas on November 25.
- After recently leaving Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel due to concerns about his safety, former Mavericks and Clippers big man Johnathan Motley is signing a G League contract, according Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (Twitter link), who says Motley has drawn some NBA interest from teams in need of frontcourt depth. Aris Barkas of Eurohoops has more on Motley, whose decision to leave Hapoel Tel Aviv was a unilateral one that could result in the team initiating legal proceedings.
- Former NBA guard Eric Bledsoe is returning to the Shanghai Sharks, the Chinese team with whom he has spent the past two seasons, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando. Bledsoe, who will turn 35 next month, has appeared in 756 regular season NBA games but has been out of the league since he was waived by Portland in July 2022.
- Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has updated his 2025 NBA mock draft now that NCAA teams have a few games under their belts. The most notable update near the top of Wasserman’s board is at No. 4, with BYU’s Egor Demin moving into that spot on the heels of his strong start. The 6’9″ guard is averaging 17.0 points, 7.5 assists, and 2.3 steals per game in his first four outings, with a shooting line of .634/.550/.500.
Classic Shaq sensitivity
He’s Shaqtin the fool.
Whoop-de-do.
6’9 guard is crazy
Long live E.J’s Neat-O stat of the Night!
Presented by…
Wasserman’s mock draft is an interesting take. He has the Nets taking Two Centers. Don’t they already have Nic Claxton. Where are the minutes coming from. He also has them taking a SG whose comp is Cam Thomas, who already plays for the Nets. They might want to diversify.
No one can evaluate flagg until Duke steps up and play some good teams. the pre-conference schedule is laughable.
Right now, the Nets will be drafting to late to snag Flagg. The level of competition shouldn’t be an obstacle in evaluating Flagg. Scouts are paid to look at a player’s makeup and project what they will do at the next level.
I think the mock drafts in these early stages are about player positioning as far as value ranking. I don’t think team needs are taken into consideration at all.
I was just kinda mocking the mock drafts. I just look at who might be in the area of where the Warriors might draft. I then lookup their scouting reports to see if they could be a good fit. There seem to a lot more “true” centers this next draft. They may even be serviceable.
Sure would be nice if the Warriors could pick a nice young Center who turns out to be a nice young Center.
The problem with “nice young Center” is that they take longer to develop. You have to accept that it will be a few seasons before they can contribute. Jokic played professionally in Serbia for two years before Denver drafted him. Then they waited another year before bringing him over. Wiseman was just to young. NCAA and COVID screwed him.
I watch Inside The NBA in spite of Shaq, not because of him. I doubt that I’m alone.
Oh the horror…There has always got to be a few like you. Your numbers are not enough for him to be dropped. It would have happened years ago.
Good point Giants74. If he wasn’t popular he would have been dumped a while ago. I think I don’t hear him well because of his low voice and the fact I attended too many rock concerts in my youth LOL !!
Shaq adds nothing to the show. I can barely hear him or understand him.
I can do without him as his analysis is always comparing players to himself. The game is different he was a dominant force but he couldn’t play like that in this era because his defense would get him fouled out. He does have some fun bits if they don’t drag on too long.
Shaq got options, good for him.
He stays he likes it there ITNBA. This show is more honest. It’s all about ball and ballers. It’s a good show.