"The NBA’s Conduct Will Cause Plaintiffs Irreparable Harm"

August 5, 2024 11:01 AM

In a complaint filed at the end of July with New York State's Supreme Court (which is actually not the state's highest court), TNT Sports and Warner Brothers/Discovery have made good on their threat to sue the NBA [NY Times, archive here] with a claim that NBA failed their obligation to renew an 11-year contract to carry basketball games, choosing instead a $77B deal to run until 2035 with ESPN, NBC and Amazon.

The terms of the existing contract gave TNT the right to match any deal offered by another party. When the NBA produced the arrangement they had negotiated with the streamers, TNT responded, but NBA decided that "Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer" and declared that their arrangement with Amazon would begin next basketball season. TNT swiftly shot back:

"We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it. [...] We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic Inside the NBA."

The document that's publicly available contains a few censored portions, most notably that the Amazon deal counted the possible viewership in a suspicious way that TNT couldn't verify, and that the announced deal contained poison pills that caused a short-term hurt to the NBA but "serves no purpose other than to unduly burden WBD. The Amazon Offer itself, if accepted by the NBA, contained [...] other provisions that are neither related to Cable Rights nor supported by any legitimate business justification, but rather are solely designed to thwart TBS’s matching rights." TNT seeks an injunction forcing the NBA to break away from Amazon and accept its version of the matched contract, since preparations for next season are already underway.

Fast Company pundits weigh in with opinions that "Warner Bros.’s lawsuit against the NBA can’t stop the tide. The streaming giants want live sports." and opines that linear cable as we know it may not exist when this contract expires again in 2035.

Regardless of one's position on the legal wrangling, one positive side effect of NBA games returning to NBC would be the RETURN OF ROUNDBALL ROCK

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (7 comments total)

Part of me is like, "Let them fight" -- but another part marvels at the way hunger for money will make TNT+WB/D willing to be contractually bound to an organization they took to court.

How good can that relationship ever be??
posted by wenestvedt at 12:03 PM on August 5 [2 favorites]

Ok come on “Roundball Rock” vs Inside the NBA original cast? No contest. Hell, I think *I’ll* sue the NBA!
posted by toodleydoodley at 12:03 PM on August 5 [3 favorites]

New York State's Supreme Court (which is actually not the state's highest court)


Huhn! TIL
posted by lalochezia at 12:40 PM on August 5

I find myself to be surprisingly okay with irreparable harm to most of the parties involved in this dispute.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:02 PM on August 5 [1 favorite]

Anyone suing to keep Chuck and Ernie on the air is doing gods work.
posted by lkc at 3:28 PM on August 5 [1 favorite]

Is there any way that this would rid us of Stephen A. Smith? Because I... I hate that guy.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:50 PM on August 5

wenestvedt, Inside the NBA is the moral balance that keeps Stephen A from taking over the galaxy
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:08 PM on August 5 [2 favorites]