Former 15-time NBA All-Star and 14-time All-NBA center Shaquille O’Neal could become a broadcasting free agent next summer.
That’s because Warner Bros., owner of TNT and NBA TV, was squeezed out of the NBA broadcast rights conversation this summer. ABC/ESPN (owned by Disney), NBC/Peacock, and Amazon are the three new companies slated to boast exclusive television broadcast rights to the league, thanks to a new $76 billion agreement.
Read more: TNT Plans Future With Charles Barkley ‘With or Without the NBA’
The 7-foot-1 big man has been a basketball commentator for those networks since calling it a career in 2011. He is most celebrated for his work as the fourth addition to TNT’s long-running wraparound program “Inside The NBA,” alongside fellow Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, former two-time Houston Rockets champion Kenny “The Jet” Smith, and eternal TNT analyst Ernie Johnson.
(L-R) Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley speak onstage at the 2018 NBA Awards at Barkar Hangar on June 25, 2018 in Santa Monica, California. O’Neal appears optimistic their program “Inside The NBA” can survive beyond this season.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Turner Sports
While chatting with former Miami Heat championship-winning teammate Udonis Haslem and Haslem’s longtime Heat colleague Mike Miller for their podcast “The OGs,” O’Neal addressed the possibility that “Inside The NBA” could somehow survive beyond the 2024-25 season.
“I have to be a consummate professional, so we definitely have one year left. And they’re working on some things, that’s all I’m at liberty to say,” O’Neal teased. “In a perfect world, I would love for us to stay together forever, but it’s in the hands of the powers right now. But this last year is gonna be a phenomenal year, you know Chuck is gonna go crazy, I’m gonna go crazy. It’s gonna be fun. Hopefully, this is not the last year.”
The league itself is in a terrific place, even if TNT’s role in its future is now tragically tenuous.
Last season, the Boston Celtics rode a 16-3 playoff record to claim their record 18th NBA championship, and first in 16 years, thanks to its new young core of All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, All-Defensive guards Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, and oft-hurt center Kristaps Porzingis.
The Dallas Mavericks, led by rising young All-NBA guard Luka Doncic and veteran eight-time All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, fell to Boston in a five-game Finals, but their return to that stage for the first time in 13 years has to be seen as a triumph of team-building.
Beyond Boston and Dallas, several loaded squads have a legitimate shot at a Finals berth in 2025, including big-market clubs New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference, and the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Denver Nuggets in the West. Whether or not O’Neal and company will be around after this season to talk about those young club’s development remains to be seen.
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