The Underrated

NBA vs TNT; The NBA REJECTS TNT'S OFFER

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Duration:: 9m
Broadcast on:: 25 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

What's up North America, I'm Dave Dabaugh and thanks so much for tuning in to the underrated pod. Now look, you can actually write a script like this, can you? I mean, seriously, the good folks over at TNT look like they're actually being run by Donald Sterling and his former regime from the Los Angeles Clippers. I am just saying, what a complete mess. The team is over at TNT as apparently they have completely squandered their opportunity on numerous occasions, not just one, but on numerous occasions to actually re-up with the National Basketball Association. Alright, so that is the topic of tonight's story on the underrated pod. So here we go. Now, earlier in the week, TNT announced that they had submitted an offer. This was on Monday afternoon that they had submitted an offer to match the Amazon deal. We ran a story about it. Our story basically told Adam Silver to simply call up Roger Goodell and ask him how he would handle creating a fourth package. But that clearly didn't happen, which isn't terribly surprising, but what did happen today was Adam Silver and the National Basketball Association just completely rejected the TNT offer. They basically said that the 11-year, $1.8 billion annual contract that the NBA had agreed to with Amazon was not actually matched by TNT. You can just hear the lawyers right now just sharpening their pencils. You can just hear the lawyers bills just going up on both sides of this particular argument. Now, I find it hard to believe that the folks over at TNT had actually submitted an offer that was not a matching offer. I haven't had a chance to actually see the actual offer that TNT put out. But I can tell you, based on everything I've seen happen with TNT related to the National Basketball Association, new media rights deal over the last 16 months is simply put, it wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they simply kept a couple of dollars off the top of the deal. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they tried to change the wording and the actual agreement of the deal when they submitted their, if you will, matching offer. My guess is that the folks over at TNT did not, as Adam Silver and the National Basketball Association pointed out, create a true matching offer. Now, everything is in the words. Everything is in the context of the actual agreement that was actually sent over. So hopefully someday we'll actually get our hands on it. So we'll know for sure. But in this particular case, I am going to go ahead and take Adam Silver's word for it. I'm going to go ahead and take the National Basketball Association's word for it. Plus, I think that if the folks over at TNT really wanted the National Basketball Association back on their network, they would have done it. They had numerous, numerous opportunities. It is not as if Adam Silver was hanging out in a cave with Aaron Rodgers sitting in the dark deciding which of the networks to actually go with. It's not as if Adam Silver did not actually notify the folks over at TNT where they were at. That allegedly has happened on numerous occasions. The National Basketball Association, at least according to the reports that I've seen, certainly kept the folks over at TNT involved and aware of the pending offers on the table. We've done, I don't know, maybe four or five reports on this over the last three months. And yes, it was clear that if TNT wanted to match, they would have done it significantly earlier in the process, which is why on Monday, when this particular, the last offer came down the pike, I was like, wow, well, maybe this is a legitimate offer and a legitimate opportunity for Adam Silver to do a bit of a Texas two step with the other media partners and actually create a fourth package. Well, that is not going to happen. And where we're going to end up, my friends, is basically in court. That is exactly where this is headed. Now, after the NBA issued their announcement, TNT responded with its very own announcement. TNT sports issued a response to the National Basketball Association on Wednesday afternoon declaring an a statement that it doesn't believe the NBA can reject its offer. It vowed to take appropriate action. Look, I don't understand what TNT's end game is in all of this. Yeah, the reality is the National Basketball Association ratings aren't all that good. And maybe that's what TNT is actually trying to hold on to. The truth of the matter is the Emmy award winning inside the NBA is such a fantastic show. I've absolutely loved every single minute of it that I've been able to watch over the past, I don't know, like 25 years. It is fantastic television by far the best pre in game and post game show on sports. It just is across any network, such a great cast. And my hope is, despite what Charles Barkley said about retiring at the end of this next season, my hope is, is that that show at least will find a new home with, of course, somehow asking Chuck to come out of retirement. The last thing I want to say on this particular topic is just how bad TNT messed up on this. Look, I'm in the Silicon Valley and I've been up here for 20 plus years. I've been part of a wide variety of negotiations over the years. This is has to be one of the worst negotiations I've ever seen actually unfold. It's like deciding you're going to do a deal with somebody or deciding you're not going to do a deal with somebody. The folks over at TNT basically appeared to make the decision that they're not actually going to do a deal to renew and re up with the National Basketball Association. That decision seemed to be made. Ultimately, I think this was all part of some strange, bizarre negotiation tactic. It's sort of like the National Football League teams waiting until training camp opens up to actually start negotiations. I mean, just look at what the Dallas Cowboys have to deal with. They've got three major contracts, which all should have been taken care of well before the start of actual training camp. Now there's all of this black cloud, if you will, flying over Oxnard where the Dallas Cowboys are actually going to be hitting training camp a little later this week. It is ridiculous that TNT is playing the game in the way that they're actually playing the game. At the end of the day, I think the NBA should do what it's doing. As long as that contract was not an equal matching contract, the National Basketball Association and Adam Silver are absolutely doing the right thing. And the only people that TNT can actually blame is themselves. All right, that is it for tonight's underrated. Hey, listen, thanks so much for all of your support over the past 12 months across our shorts and our long forms. We actually cleared a million views, which is pretty good. I really appreciate all of that. So thanks so much for the underrated. I am Dave DeBaugh, wishing you all a tremendous rest of your sports viewing day to the guitar refs we go. [MUSIC]