BOSTON — Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that completing the NBA's next round of media rights deals is an extremely complex proposition. Nobody can say with any certainty what the viewing landscape will look like in the future, so expansion talks will have to wait.
Silver, speaking in his annual pre-NBA Finals news conference, did not offer any hints on when the next series of deals will be completed, other than saying "in the relative near term." The current deals with ABC-ESPN and Turner Sports expire after next season and the NBA has been talking with NBC, ESPN and Amazon, among other networks and platforms, about what comes next.
The expectation from networks and others involved in the process is that the new agreements will be for 11 years and could exceed $70 billion in total value. Those would smash the existing norms for both value and deal length; the current one is nine years, $24 billion.
"We tend to do long-term deals," Silver said. "We think that's good for the stability of the league. But it means, to a certain extent, you're trying to predict the future, which is, of course, impossible."
What remains most unclear is how, or if, Turner will remain involved with the NBA when the new deals get struck.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav sounded an ominous note in late 2022, saying that Turner and WBD "don't have to have the NBA" once their current deal expires. If WBD is not part of the next deals, one of the most recognizable changes for fans could be the demise of the highly popular "Inside the NBA" program featuring former NBA stars Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith.
"That show, in particular, is special." Silver said.
When the deals get done — whether it's in the coming days, weeks or even months — it would clear the way for the next major item on the NBA's to-do list, that being expansion.
Silver has been very clear on the order of his top agenda items in recent seasons, those being preserving labor peace (which was achieved with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement) and getting a new media deal (talks ongoing). Then, the league, at some point, will turn its attention toward adding new franchises.
"It's not preordained that we will expand this time, but I know there's an enormous amount of interest out there," Silver said. When the league is finished with its new media deals, the commissioner will turn the topic of expansion at the NBA Governors' meeting this summer and form a committee.
Silver talked about adding two teams if they were to expand as a hypothetical example. An expansion committee would have to answer a few questions before going forward.
Is there enough talent? He thinks there is enough, but how will an expansion draft look?
How does it work geographically? There's been much speculation about what cities would earn a team. Of course, Seattle is one of them. A lot of the experts want to bring back the Sonics.
How will it grow the game? Silver wants to expand outside of the United States and more into Canada, but he says this may not be the right time for that. Although, he wants to think long-term.
Silver finished the topic on expansion with a bit of hope for Sonics fans. He said "I'm actually very excited about turning to that process, but first, we just got to be finished with the media deals."