ESPN and Amazon Are Interested in Hiring Entire ‘Inside the NBA’ Crew Now TNT is Out on NBA Rights Talks: Report

ESPN and Amazon may be willing to pay big money for the entire cast of Inside the NBA after TNT was unable to secure a media rights deal for 2025.

The league announced Wednesday that it reached an agreement on a long-term media deal with Amazon. That deal, in addition to the deals with ESPN and NBC, officially shut the door on TNT — though the network has vowed to take “appropriate action” as it feels it has the right to match Amazon’s deal and retain the rights.

To many viewers, the loss of the NBA on TNT means the loss of Inside the NBA, the Emmy Award-winning show featuring Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. Barkley announced during the NBA Finals that after next season, the last year of the current media deal, he will retire from broadcasting.

According to a report from Front Office Sports, however, ESPN and Amazon are interested in keeping the band together on their own networks. Sources informed FOS’s Michael McCarthy that both networks are considering the possibility of bringing on the entire Inside cast.

Should that not happen, Barkley still remains the most sought-after free agent in sports media. His current contract at TNT includes a clause that gives him an out in the event of the company losing NBA rights; and he’ll likely command more than $20 million annually in the event that he rethinks his retirement plans.

O’Neal, Smith, and Johnson do not have similar clauses in their contracts; and Johnson is reportedly fiercely loyal to TNT Sports.

Amazon Prime Video global head of sports Jay Marine told FOS that Inside the NBA is “the gold standard for studio programming,” but steered clear of revealing the company’s plans.

“I’m a huge fan,” Marine said. “We’re all big fans. It is so entertaining Those guys are hilarious. The chemistry is off the charts. In fact, it’s what we really held up as the standard and our inspiration when we were designing our [Thursday Night Football] pregame show… We’ll have to see how all this plays out. We just signed the deal. They’ll have no shortage of options depending on what they want to do.”

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