The Board of Governors voted 29-1 in approving the NBA’s media rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon with the lone “no” coming from James Dolan of the New York Knicks, sources tell Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal. Dolan had sent a letter to his fellow Board of Governors arguing that the NBA was moving toward a model similar to the NFL where local TV revenue was deprioritized.
Some owners sided with Dolan that the NBA shouldn’t point to rising valuations to ease concerns about losing local TV money and sponsorships with the implication being that selling their teams was their best financial recourse.
Sources, however, described the three-hour meeting as a “breeze” as they were also informed that the total value of the media rights package was at $77 billion over 11 years.
Warner Bros. Discovery intends to match Amazon’s “C” package for NBA media rights, sources tell Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal. The NBA will soon turn over three written contracts to WBD in ESPN’s $2.6 billion per year bid, NBC’s $2.5 billion per year bid, and Amazon’s $1.8 billion per year bid. WBD CEO David Zaslav will have five days to match either NBC or Amazon’s bid.
Zaslav believes Amazon’s deal that contains alternating Conference Finals, a Thursday package, Friday or Saturday games, NBA Cup, early round playoffs and international rights is the most fiscally responsible package for them. WBD can potentially use its own streaming service, Max, while also airing games on TNT.
The NBA is expected to argue that Max is not the equal to Amazon as the former has a reach of 100 million worldwide compared to 200 million with the latter.
It was initially reported in May that WBD had its sights on the Amazon package should they decide to attempt to match one of the packages as part of their contractual right. The NBA reportedly has struggled to have confidence in WBD’s long-term financial viability as the company is worth approximately $17 billion with $40 billion in debt.
Khris Middleton underwent two successful arthroscopic clean-up procedures to fix lingering ankle issues this offseason. Middleton underwent surgery initially on his left ankle shortly after the season. Middleton later underwent a minor clean up surgery on his right ankle in mid-June.
Middleton was walking without pain or discomfort when he visited his teammates in Las Vegas for Summer League. Middleton is expected to be ready for the start of the 24-25 season.
Middleton missed over a month of action and 16 consecutive games with his left ankle injury before returning to the floor on March 17. Middleton averaged 15.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 27 minutes per game and played in only 55 games. Middleton has two years remaining on the three-year, $102 million contract extension he signed with the Bucks last offseason.
