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 the sudden jump ball 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 NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s league.

“We don’t have to have the NBA,” said Zaslav, who is reportedly paid like an NBA star at nearly $50 million a year, during an RBC investor conference.

Zaslav’s words zinged the ears of Silver and NBA executives. It has left Zaslav and TNT Sports fighting for their NBA lives with a Faustian choice.

Zaslav can either show fiscal restraint and lose the NBA to NBC, puncturing TNT Sports in the process, or he can pay the reported $2.5 billion per season asking price for a lesser package than he currently owns, proving that he does need the NBA.

Any deal for TNT or NBC is expected to include a conference final every other year, as opposed to TNT’s current setup of every season. Either network is anticipated to hold onto the yearly All-Star Game broadcast.

At this point, it seems apparent that ESPN’s chairman Jimmy Pitaro, and Amazon Prime Video’s top sports executive Jay Marine, and their bosses — who are already at the negotiation’s medal stand waiting for the third winner — have done a better job than Zaslav and his top lieutenants.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by The Athletic, ESPN will pay $2.6 billion each season for the NBA Finals and conference finals, while Amazon Prime Video will receive a conference final every other year and is expected to be in the $1.8 billion-per-year range.

Meanwhile, NBC is sitting there, aggressively going after Zaslav’s deal. It is a multi-faceted corporate move by Comcast-owned NBC that would reunite the league with its Michael Jordan-era partner and “Roundball Rock” theme song and comes with an already set one-two play-by-play punch of Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle.

While cable may be dwindling, Comcast is still in the business. If Zaslav and TNT Sports no longer air NBA games, Comcast could conceivably attempt to drop the price of its roughly $3 per month fee on subscribers. It could add up to millions in savings for Comcast.

Meanwhile, NBC is offering to put games on its broadcast network, where they could fit snugly after “Sunday Night Football” ends in early January. 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.

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.

From 1999 to 2003, Lazarus headed TNT Sports. During that time, the network hired Barkley, arguably the greatest sports studio analyst of all time.

Lazarus also developed strong relationships with Silver and NBA chief rights negotiator Bill Koenig.

At Turner, Lazarus ascended to the head of Turner Entertainment, overseeing all of their programming from TNT to TBS. By 2008, though, he was fired.

He went on to resurrect his career with NBC, where he now sits atop NBCUniversal Media Group.

“Both NBC and me, personally, have long histories with the NBA from my Turner years,” Lazarus said at the IMG Summit last September. “It’s a wonderful product in the States and globally. It’s a really valuable product, it’s culturally relevant in ways maybe some other sports aren’t — it speaks to multiple generations.

“So we’re intrigued by that, but we’re not an incumbent, and the process will come and go as it does.”

The process is ongoing, and it is hard to see how Zaslav wins. If he pays top dollar to keep a lesser package, he will dishonor his words about not needing the NBA, even if he has since tried to walk them back somewhat, professing his love for the league. If he loses the NBA, what becomes of TNT Sports, even if it still has MLB, the NCAA Tournament, NHL and NASCAR?

TNT’s NBA history is stellar, and many of the people who built it remain with the network, waiting by their phones to find out what the future holds. They are at the ground level grinding, while Zaslav is at the games.

During New York Knicks first-round playoff games, TNT showed Zaslav sitting courtside when it did its celebrity roll call. Those things don’t happen by accident; especially, and notably, on the late-April night the network’s exclusive negotiations rights window was closing.

TNT’s coverage is iconic because of all the memorable moments with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Barkley. But the words that may define it, if this is the end of an era, could belong to Zaslav, who, at last resort, may also prove those words were hollow if he tries to prevent NBC from completing the steal.

Zaslav talked trash, but Silver has the ball, and the commissioner may decide who he wants to take the final shot.

GO DEEPER

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(Top photo of the “Inside the NBA” crew in Denver for the 2023-24 season tipoff game: Jamie Schwaberow / NBAE via Getty Images)

This year’s SummerSlam will be one of the most intriguing WWE premium live events (PLEs) of the summer at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The Cleveland area is home to United States Champion Logan Paul, his brother Jake, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and his brother, Travis.

Johnny Gargano, one half of the tag team known as DIY, is also a Cleveland native and has been at Cleveland Browns Stadium in the past to welcome his favorite NFL team into the stadium. When the possibility of the Pauls and Kelces squaring off in a tag-team match was mentioned, Gargano seemed interested.

“Yeah, that’d be big. You never know,” Gargano told Fox News Digital with a laugh. “Look, it’s in Cleveland Browns Stadium, I will say. There are members of the Cleveland Browns roster that are wrestling fans. I’ll mention David Njoku especially. I know Myles Garrett’s done a Shawn Michaels pose a few times as well. I would not rule out any Cleveland Browns being in attendance that night.

“But Paul brothers versus Kelce brothers, that is definitely box office. Big headlines. You never know.”

WWE’s last premium live event in Cleveland was Fastlane in 2019, and that was an arena show. This time around, the football stadium will play host to the premium live event. It will also be the first PLE in the U.S. WWE will hold most of them outside the country.

Andrade and Jason Kelce celebrating their win against Legado del Fantasma during WrestleMania 40 at Lincoln Financial Field April 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (WWE/Getty Images)

Logan Paul is introduced before a triple threat match against Randy Orton and Kevin Owens at Lincoln Financial Field April 7, 2024, in Philadelphia.  (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

To have it in Cleveland means more for Gargano.

“I heard a few months ago that it was a possibility. And when I heard it was a possibility, I said, ‘Please, just please,’” he told Fox News Digital. “You know how freaking cool that would be? This is something I’ve been waiting for, I don’t want to say my whole life, but essentially my whole life, for the majority of my life. A huge big four WWE event in Cleveland, Ohio. The fact that it’s in Cleveland Browns Stadium is something I never thought would happen.”

Gargano said he dreamed about possibly wrestling in the stadium when he was a child. But he didn’t think it would ever happen because Cleveland isn’t considered a major market, and doing open-air shows wasn’t really a thing years ago.

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“The fact that it’s actually happening, it’s actually a real thing, not just a daydream … the fact that SummerSlam is coming to Cleveland, Ohio, and I am an active member of the WWE roster, and I have a chance to wrestle in that stadium on that show, it feels like destiny, man. It really, really does.”

WWE just finished with Backlash in Lyon, France, and for those even watching at home, the crowd roared over commentators Michael Cole and Corey Graves.

Gargano said he has “faith” in the fans to bring their all and follow in the “footsteps of all the international PLEs.”

By the time Aug. 3 rolls around, it’s unclear where Gargano will be in the championship picture. He and his tag-team partner, Tommaso Ciampa, were recently drafted to SmackDown and have yet to capitalize on the opportunities to hold tag-team gold.

Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano celebrate their win during Monday Night RAW at the Bell Centre April 15, 2024, in Montreal.  (WWE/Getty Images)

Gargano said he still believes he can win gold in 2024 and accomplish his goal of being a WWE champion.

“I just want to be on SummerSlam in any way, shape or form,” he said. “But if it were to shake out that way, if we were to get a shot at the WWE tag-team titles at SummerSlam in my hometown, and the fact that it’s in Cleveland Browns Stadium. I had my senior prom in Cleveland Browns Stadium. I had my 30th birthday party, thanks to my lovely wife, in Cleveland Browns Stadium.

“I trained for Takeover: New York for my NXT championship in Cleveland Browns Stadium. I have so much history in that building. I pride myself on being the Cleveland professional wrestler because I am very proud to rep it wherever I go.

“If I were to get the opportunity to win the WWE tag-team titles in that stadium for my family and friends, that would be … something I would remember for a very, very long time. Until the day I die really. That’s the culmination of years of work. So, who knows? We’ll see what happens.”

WWE SummerSlam is scheduled for Aug. 3. Tickets went on sale earlier this week.

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LAFC advanced to the Round of 16 in the U.S. Open Cup with a 3-1 win against the Las Vegas Lights at Cashman Field on Wednesday night.

After a scoreless first half, LAFC scored first when a cleared corner kick was contained and sent to Timothy Tillman on the left wing. His cross was finished on a header by Kei Kamara for his first goal with LAFC, giving them a 1-0 lead just two minutes after the break.

Las Vegas’ Shawn Smart tied it in the 56th minute, but LAFC’s Cristian Olivera broke the deadlock when he tapped home Omar Campos’ deflected cross in the 70th minute. Olivera then put the match out of reach in stoppage time with his second goal.

LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo was issued a straight red card in the second minute of first-half stoppage time after a clash of players near the technical area.

LAFC will host USL Championship (Division II) side Loudoun United in the Round of 16 on May 21 at BMO Stadium.

Up next

LAFC returns to MLS action Saturday when they host the Vancouver Whitecaps FC at 7:30 p.m. PT at BMO Stadium.