One of the core aspects of basketball is trash talk. It has seemingly been part of the game since Dr. Naismith taped up his first peach basket in 1891 at Springfield College: If you talk the talk, you have to back it up. That is why Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s diss track from 2022 is underpinning between Zaslav’s TNT Sports and NBC for the last NBA TV rights deal that is still up for grabs. Two years ago, Zaslav dunked on commissioner Adam Silver’s league.
NBC also wants the NBA to prop up its subscription streamer, Peacock. And, although not the incumbent, the NBA may prefer NBC as its teammate for this package. Advertisement While TNT Sports has broadcast the NBA for nearly four decades, it includes countless employees with long-term NBA ties and boasts Charles Barkley and the iconic “Inside the NBA” studio show, NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus is the media executive with the long-term relationship with the league.