NBA wants to play on Team Amazon. Will TNT take fight to the court?

Simone Del Rosario:

Oh what a 10-day span it’s been for the NBA and its broadcast partners.

Last Tuesday the league’s board of governors approved an 11-year, $76 billion deal for media rights with Disney, Amazon and NBC.

The following day, the league provided its longtime partner TNT Sports and Warner Bros Discovery the details of the deal.

Just as it seemed TNT would be riding the bench starting with the 2025-2026 season, they threw up a prayer on Monday.

Or as the network said, they had executed their contractual option and “reviewed the offers and matched one of them.”

The “One of them” in question was Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year bid.

“Not so fast my friend.”

I know. I’m mixing my sports here.

Warner Bros. thought their offer was nothing but net. But the NBA blocked the shot. In a statement released Wednesday, they said “Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon.”

Time out.

According to the NBA, the deals they negotiated “maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had been adamant streaming had to be a big part of the deal. And while it was speculated some of the Warner Bros. match included games streamed on MAX, apparently the league didn’t think it did enough to meet the promise of a full time streamer in Amazon Prime Video.

For their part, TNT Sports says they matched the Amazon offer, as was their right, and now they’re calling foul on the NBA.

Andrew Brandt, a former Professional Sports Executive told Straight Arrow News in an email:

“The NBA was obviously advised by their high-powered lawyers that TNT did not match, perhaps due to a cable company having no ability to match a streaming service. As with everything, it comes down to the contract: did it address that TNT would have no ability to match a streaming service? Or did it not? In this case, it is not about the lawyers in the dispute; it is about the lawyers who drafted the ‘match.’”

You can bet on this heading to court – the legal one, that is – as TNT Sports says its contractual rights have been “grossly misinterpreted” and they will take “appropriate action.”

The NBA’s decision continues to throw TNT’s famed studio show “Inside the NBA” in limbo, and, for now, Charles Barkley won’t have to think too hard about going back on his promise of retiring from TV after the next season.

Charles Barkley:

“No matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television.