In what will likely be its final slate, NBA on TNT is starting out the season with a bang. TNT holds the first two games of the NBA season, with the New York Knicks at the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night.
TNT will also broadcast San Antonio Spurs at the Dallas Mavericks — an early battle of the Europeans with Victor Wembanyama vs. Luka Dončić — and Oklahoma City Thunder at the Denver Nuggets. In all, TNT holds the rights to four of the 11 NBA games during the first week of the season.
This season is likely to be the last for NBA on TNT: As of now, TNT has been cut out of the new NBA media deal, ending the company’s 35-year run of NBA coverage.
The NBA announced its new media right deal at the end of July, renewing a deal with ESPN but also agreeing on a deal with NBC and Amazon Prime. TNT had a chance to match the Amazon portion of the deal, but it was not successful. The deal, worth many billions of dollars, will last for the next 11 seasons starting in 2025.
TNT missing the cut also means the end of fan-favorite NBA analysis show “Inside the NBA.” After the media deal was reported, “Inside the NBA” host Charles Barkley said that he’s “not sure TNT ever had a chance.”
As of now, TNT’s future with the NBA is still murky: After failing to match Amazon’s piece, TNT and its parent company Warner Bros Discovery said in a statement that it will continue to challenge that ruling, saying that stipulations in its previous contract mean that the NBA can’t reject its matching offer.
For now though, fans have one season left to enjoy it.
