Basketball Intelligence for 7/17/24
NBA and WNBA media rights, Summer League Standouts, and much more
LEAGUEWIDE and OLYMPICS
NBA Summer League: Standout players from Day 10
Staff, NBA.com
WNBA’s media rights deals set league up to receive $2.2 billion over next 11 years
Mike Vorkunov, The Athletic
The new rights fees could have as much as six times multiple of the league’s current media rights fees since the new deals leave room for the WNBA to bring in new partners. The league anticipates it will sell two other rights packages in addition to the ones it has already made agreements for, and projects to bring in another $60 million annually in total in those additional deals.
Minimum times
Henry Abbott,
NBA will turn to ‘consideration of expansion’ after media rights deal complete, Adam Silver says
Mike Vorkunov/Alex Andrejev, The Athletic
Post-free agency NBA Power Rankings: All 30 teams' biggest offseason questions
Staff, ESPN
WBD officially intends to match Amazon’s media rights deal
Tom Friend, Sports Business Journal
First, as soon as today, the league will turn over three written contracts to WBD -- ESPN’s reported $2.6B annual bid, NBCUniversal’s $2.5B bid and Amazon’s $1.8B bid -- at which point WBD CEO David Zaslav will have five days to match NBC or Amazon. Because Zaslav and Co. believe Amazon’s streaming deal (alternating conference finals, a Thursday package, Friday or Saturday games, NBA Cup, early round playoffs and international rights) is the most fiscally responsible, sources indicated yesterday they will match Amazon with their own streaming service, Max, while simulcasting games on TNT.
The NBA is expected to argue Max is not equal to Amazon (which has a 200 million worldwide ad-supported reach compared to Max’s approximate 100 million), likely leading to either an argument, a lawsuit, a cash settlement or, if WBD has its way, a fourth smaller package.
Adam Silver defends new tax apron: Helps all teams compete
Baxter Holmes, ESPN
11 NBA Takes: The Most Fascinating Moves in the West
LeBron James, Stephen Curry had a ‘healthy resentment’ — the Olympics offer something new
Joe Vardon, The Athletic
Will Your Favorite NBA Team Be Better or Worse in 2024-25?
Grant Hughes/Dan Favale, Bleacher Report
TEAM STORIES
ATL: Zaccharie Risacher was the perfect pick for the Atlanta Hawks
Ben Grunert, Soaring Down South