When The Starters didn’t have their contracts renewed with Turner this summer, there were many NBA fans wondering what the next step would be for the former “The Basketball Jones” crew.
After a summer of sporadic podcast tapings under the name “The Free Agents” and promises the season wouldn’t start without them, we learned of their new venture. A return to full-time podcasting was indeed in the cards for J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas, Leigh Ellis, and Trey Kerby, as they were joining The Athletic and rebranding as “No Dunks.” The best news for their longtime fans who have been listening to them for the last 13 odd years is that the main version of the podcast will be on the same podcast stream they have now and won’t be tucked behind The Athletic’s paywall.
Finally, your boys have come back to podcasting!
Beyond thrilled to announce that @NoDunksInc has joined @TheAthleticNBA.
New name, same feed, non-stop classics. NBA season previews start Oct. 14th. Subscribe to #NoDunks wherever you get your podcasts! 👊 pic.twitter.com/hjGQ9Rp7Oq
— J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) October 8, 2019
You can listen to the show everywhere!
Spotify: https://t.co/4voujLpj08
Apple: https://t.co/fwA3K52NPu
Google Play: https://t.co/AGalCVt5G6
Stitcher: https://t.co/HKr3SeLAzi
Subscribe to The Athletic: https://t.co/hAJ1EAvpxt pic.twitter.com/f6WC5H2Ovy
— No Dunks (@NoDunksInc) October 8, 2019
According to the Washington Post, there will be some paywalled podcasts from the crew, likely in the form of longterm interviews with Athletic writers or mail bags, but the chief podcast will be available to all, whether they have a subscription or not. It’s an interesting move from The Athletic, which now has a flagship show on their growing podcast network that also includes the Count The Dings crew and nearly 100 total podcasts across their sites.
The other interesting nugget from the Post is that the No Dunks crew is only beholden to The Athletic for podcasting, and should they want to pursue a TV or video deal they still can do so.
