NBA studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal has reached an agreement on a new long-term deal with TNT Sports that will be worth in excess of $15MM per year, reports Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Although TNT Sports will no longer have the right to broadcast NBA games after the 2024/25 season, the show’s popular Inside the NBA studio show will remain on the air, with the company licensing it to ESPN beginning this fall. O’Neal’s agreement with TNT ensures that he’ll still be part of the show’s panel going forward.
O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith have each reportedly talked to new NBA media rights partners NBC and Amazon, who will begin broadcasting games next season. However, Barkley and O’Neal have deals in place to remain with TNT and the expectation is that Smith will sign a new multiyear contract with the network too, according to McCarthy. As for host Ernie Johnson, he’s considered a “TNT lifer,” McCarthy writes.
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic earned the top two spots on 99 of 100 ballots submitted by media members to Tim Bontemps of ESPN (Insider link) in his latest Most Valuable Player straw poll. Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo claimed a single second-place vote, with Jokic coming in third on that voter’s ballot. However, it’s clearly a two-player MVP race between Gilgeous-Alexander, who received 70 first-place votes and 910 total points, and Jokic, who got 30 and 788, respectively.
- The NBA and NBPA will speak to this year’s All-Stars this weekend to stress the importance of competing hard in Sunday’s All-Star event for the sake of both fans and the business, league sources tell NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter video link). The All-Star game has been a low-intensity affair for years, but the league is hopeful that a new mini-tournament format featuring three shorter games will help address that issue.
- The 2025 NBA draft class continues to look stronger, according to Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN, who write in an Insider-only story that NBA executives are enthusiastic about the overall depth in the class, not just the potential difference-makers at the top of their boards. The international class also may be better than initially believed, with as many as nine possible first-round picks in that group, Givony and Woo say. The ESPN duo has updated its full mock draft, from Duke freshman Cooper Flagg at No. 1 to South East Melbourne forward Malique Lewis at No. 59.
As a Canadian I love and appreciate SGA, but Jokic should be winning his fifth consecutive MVP this year – he’s basically averaging 30 pts, 13 reb, and 10 ast per game on one of the better teams in the league. The Embiid win from a couple years ago was a complete joke.
Agreed. I can definitely appreciate SGA being the top threat on what is potentially the best regular season team.
Yet Jokic has been absurdly impressive, not only this season, but consistently over the past few seasons. I think fans have almost become desensitized to his performance as a consequence
Agreed
He’s shooting 58/45/82%. It’s absolute insanity and it’s the best year of his career so far.
Shai is the best defender in the league. It’s not just offensive stats. Most people (especially nuggets fans) ignore that and that’s fine, but that is why he is going to win the MVP this season. He’s the best all around player in the league.
I agree with you. Both are amazing players but Shai plays elite both ways and he’s leading a very young team. That is hard despite him making it look easy. Not everyone could do that.
Jokic not winning would be wrong. But MVP is not all stats but Denver is moving up thr standings.
Ernie the most underpaid man on the roster, he’s the only one holding the show together. 15M for Shaq is wild.
Actually I’m sick of those guys, at least two of them, and the stupidity but I understand they have so much name-brand they can’t be dumped since the NBA would lose face and ratings.
Unfortunately, with the advent of Player Podcasting, all-time great teachers like Hubie Brown will be severely outnumbered in the future by the “name brand” athletes.
It’s amazing how much a distraction gets funded isn’t it…
There’s plenty of resources, just far too much greed in the world…
If it comes down to SGA and Jokic, and Denver doesn’t have a better record than OKC this year, I’d call Jokic his team’s MVP, but not the league’s MVP.
Just my take…