Basketball fans got some pretty monumental news over the weekend. As part of the agreement that will keep Warner Bros. Discovery as one of the league’s broadcast partners during its upcoming media right deal, Turner Sports will continue to produce “Inside the NBA” but license the show out to ESPN, which will air it going forward.
The deal officially got announced on Monday, and there are some pretty big questions that continue to hang over the agreement that ESPN and Turner will have to get sorted out between now and the start of the 2025-26 season. As it turns out, there’s one especially big one that hangs over the deal, as Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated reported that Shaquille O’Neal is out of a contract on July 1, 2025. And apparently, there’s a bit of tension on the Hall of Fame inductee’s side of things right now.
While sources say Shaq wants to remain on the show, he’s frustrated that there has been congratulations and press releases hyping that Inside the NBA is remaining the same while he is currently not under contract to be with the company next season.
As Traina noted, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley all do other things for Turner, so their deals are different from Shaq’s, who exclusively does NBA work for the network. It goes without saying, but Inside without Shaq would not feel the same, although we’re optimistic that Draymond Green joining the show whenever his playing career ends would be a good fill-in for him. Still, whether it’s agreeing to another deal with Turner or working something out with ESPN, here’s hoping that Shaq is at the desk with the rest of the guys when Inside airs on the Worldwide Leader for the first time.
