Rumors swirl about 'Inside the NBA'

Monday afternoon proved to be cause for celebration for many NBA fans.

And why wouldn’t it be? With the news that Warner Bros. Discovery has exercised its matching rights on Amazon’s portion of the NBA’s media rights deal , that means that Inside the NBA isn’t going anywhere after all. Right?

Not quite.

Despite several social media posts using the news of WBD exercising its matching rights as a de facto jump to conclusions mat , the reality is that while Monday’s news does keep hope alive that the NBA — and Inside the NBA — will remain on TNT airwaves, it’s far from a done deal. In fact, the likeliest outcome in all of this is still probably WBD being on the outside looking in when all is said and done.

Why?

While WBD has formally exercised its matching rights, the NBA now gets to review the offer and determine whether it will accept the match. And all indications to this point are that it’s highly unlikely the league will do just that, as its preference is seemingly to forge a partnership with Amazon instead.

Considering the nature of its agreement with Amazon, the NBA will likely argue that WBD can’t truly match the value of the deal. Not only would the agreement create a streaming-only package for the league that WBD isn’t offering, but Prime Video’s audience is nearly double of what WBD would be able to provide on its own streaming service, Max.

There’s also the matter of whether WBD can even afford to actually match Amazon’s agreement, with The Ringer’s Bill Simmons reporting that the deal includes a “poison pill” provision , which requires the first three years of the deal upfront. That would mean WBD would have to immediately pay $5.5 billion — something easier said than done for the cash-strapped media conglomerate.

Between the likelihood that the NBA won’t accept the match and the reality that WBD would likely prefer that it didn’t — at least not in its current form — many believe this is ultimately heading to court. From there, a number of outcomes exist, including (but not limited to) the NBA paying WBD to drop its dispute, the NBA carving out a new (and cheaper) portion of its media right package for WBD or even the NBA being forced to accept WBD’s match.

In many ways, this saga is just getting started. And while there still might be hope for Inside the NBA continuing on TNT past the 2024-25, it’s far from a done deal.

The post No, ‘Inside the NBA’ isn’t here to stay — at least not yet appeared first on Awful Announcing .