Stephen A. Smith believes TNT has “failed” in its efforts to continue broadcasting the NBA after its current rights deal expires at the end of this season.
The NBA announced Wednesday that the Prime Video streaming platform will become one of the league’s new broadcast partners after TNT “did not comply with the terms” of Amazon’s bid to stream NBA games starting in the 2025-26 season.
On his eponymous podcast, Smith criticized TNT executives for how they had handled the situation, explaining that the issue had been around for several years, when the network said NBA rights were “not important.”
The ESPN “First Take” personality said he heard from a source that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver met with executives at Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company, and told them they needed to respond with another offer.
“There was some hesitation,” Smith said of the network executives’ reaction. “So [Charles] Barkley is furious because he knew, and still knows, that it didn’t have to happen.”
Smith was full of praise for the TNT studio show “Inside the NBA,” which has garnered near-universal acclaim over the years thanks to its beloved cast that includes Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson.
Despite Barkley announcing his plans to retire after this season, the sports commentator is hopeful that other networks will tap the four to cover the NBA.
Smith also questioned the future of TNT as a whole.
“All I can say is, [TNT] “What’s going to happen now is, I mean, how many episodes of Law & Order can we air,” Smith said. “We’re trying to figure that out in conjunction with the other shows. We need live shows, we need fresh shows. How many old movies can we air? So it’ll be really interesting to see what they do beyond next season.”
He added: “TNT, the final days of the NBA on TNT, are coming up next season.”
TNT is unlikely to go out of business without a legal fight, and in a fiery statement released Wednesday, the network said it believes the NBA “has seriously misrepresented our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and will take appropriate action.”
