Rumors

Central to that reticence is the league’s new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal, beginning next season, with new partners NBC, Peacock – NBC’s streaming service – and Amazon Prime, along with existing partners ABC and ESPN. Warner Bros. Discovery, which had broadcast NBA games since 1989, was left out of the new deal. Several owners would, at present, rather begin collecting and splitting the massive new revenues among the existing teams, rather than bringing in new partners that would also receive a cut of the financial pie.

New York Times

Dell Curry isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Eric Collins. Although the longtime Charlotte Hornets TV voices have been added to Amazon Prime’s new broadcast team for the 2025-26 season, Curry and Collins won’t be leaving their current positions with the organization. Curry will remain the team’s main analyst for FanDuel Sports Southeast for the vast majority of games and Collins will still handle play-by-play duties for a bulk of Charlotte’s games. Amazon Prime, which will air NBA games for the first time, officially announced its broadcast team on Thursday. Noted TNT play-by-play voice Kevin Harlan and former NBA player Brent Barry are also being hired for the streaming channel’s game content, joining Curry and Collins.

Charlotte Observer

While ESPN intends on re-signing Jefferson, it has not yet locked him up with his contract expiring, according to sources briefed on the talks. Amazon Prime Video has expressed some interest in Jefferson, according to the same sources. Meanwhile, Burke’s spot is not guaranteed for next season, according to sources familiar with ESPN’s preliminary plans. While Breen, the Basketball Hall of Famer under a long-term deal, is not going anywhere, ESPN will evaluate its entire roster.

New York Times

Amazon continues to add high-profile talent as it gets into business with the NBA. Dwyane Wade and Candace Parker are expected to be part of Amazon Prime Video’s NBA coverage, sources told Front Office Sports. The deals are not finalized. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

Front Office Sports

TNT’s Stan Van Gundy has been hired by Amazon Prime Video to be a game analyst for its forthcoming NBA coverage next season, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic. Van Gundy, 65, joins Ian Eagle on Prime Video’s game telecasts. While Prime has designated Eagle as its No. 1 play-by-play announcer, it plans on waiting to name its top game analysts.

New York Times

TNT’s Stan Van Gundy has been hired by Amazon Prime Video to be a game analyst for its forthcoming NBA coverage next season, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic.

New York Times

Van Gundy, 65, joins Ian Eagle on Prime Video’s game telecasts. While Prime has designated Eagle as its No. 1 play-by-play announcer, it plans on waiting to name its top game analysts. It has shown interest in Richard Jefferson, who was just promoted to ESPN’s No. 1 crew with Mike Breen and Doris Burke. Jefferson’s contract expires after he calls the NBA Finals for ABC in June.

New York Times

With the NBA signing a new rights deal with ESPN, Amazon Prime, and NBC, Charles Barkley could have left TNT for either one of those networks, but he stayed loyal. Carmelo Anthony was one of the people who saw Barkley’s loyalty, and he wanted to show his respect to the TNT analyst for what he did. Anthony shared his high praises for Barkley on 7 PM in Brooklyn, a Wave Sports + Entertainment Original. “With Barkley it comes down to ‘This is home, I don’t want to leave this. We done built this. I built my whole life off this s–t.’ The money is enticing because they gotta throw the money out there and rightfully so, he deserves the numbers that’s out there but you can’t leave,” Anthony said. “That’s me speaking from a loyalty situation. That’s real shit what he did because I know the numbers that are being thrown at Barkley. I know the conversation that’s being had about Barkley. Those Stephen A. numbers are official. All those numbers are real…It’s loyalty.”

Clutch Points

Comcast president Michael Cavanaugh, NBC Universal chairman Mark Lazarus and president Rick Cordella made the one-minute walk from their Rockefeller Center offices to the NBA’s on 5th Avenue. At this point, the NBA already had a framework agreement with one incumbent, Disney’s ABC-ESPN to retain the Finals, while a newly formed streaming rights deal was being locked up by Amazon Prime Video. While NBA executives, led by Silver and its president of global content and media distribution, William Koenig game-planned for years of what could happen during negotiations, NBC surprised the league, according to executives briefed on the discussions.

New York Times

The NBA’s blockbuster $76 billion megadeals with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime are a testament to its product, and the unrivaled reach and power of live sports. And the deals should also send shivers down the spines of almost everyone in Hollywood outside the network executive suites. While the 11-year agreements are seen as a critical strategic maneuver by the media companies looking to build streaming business and are a financial boon for the league, they are also, in the words of one veteran media executive who declined to be named, the latest example of a “transfer of wealth from Hollywood to the sports leagues.”

The Hollywood Reporter

But Charles Barkley was wise enough to demand an out clause in his last contract negotiation, which enables him to become a TV free agent if TNT loses NBA rights. With TNT likely to take the NBA to court, the network’s not out of the game yet. Now, odds are the NBA will be on Prime, not TNT, starting with the 2025–2026 season. As ‘Tuned In’ predicted on May 2, that would instantly send Sir Charles’s star into the stratosphere. The Chuckster could command $20 million-plus offers from the NBA’s new trio of rights partners: newcomer Prime; incumbent ABC/ESPN; and former broadcast partner NBC, which held the rights during the Michael Jordan golden era from 1990 to 2002. ESPN is already eying Barkley and the entire cast of Inside the NBA, say my sources. Ditto for Prime. After the NBA and Prime formally announced the deal, Front Office Sports spoke one-on-one with Jay Marine, global head of sports for Prime Video. Marine spoke carefully about his interest in Barkley and the rest of the Inside the NBA cast. But he professed his strong admiration for Barkley and the show, noting it inspired Prime’s own Thursday Night Football wraparound programming with host Charissa Thompson.

Front Office Sports

TNT got the contracts Wednesday night, say my sources. So it will have approximately five days, until next Monday, to “match” either Amazon Prime Video’s $1.8 billion–per-year offer or NBC’s $2.5 billion–per-year bid. (Disney’s ABC/ESPN is expected to retain the NBA’s TV “A” package, including the NBA Finals, at a price of $2.8 billion per year.) My sources tell me TNT is far more likely to match Prime’s offer than NBC’s. The network behind Charles Barkley’s Emmy Award–winning Inside the NBA is also holding out hope for a less-expensive fourth rights package that would keep it in the live NBA game business.

Front Office Sports

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

The Athletic

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic. It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

The Athletic