The looming silence has left many fans dejected regarding the future of the Emmy Award-winning show. Inside the NBA started in 1989 and will probably continue thanks to Warner Bros. Discovery’s step up to match an offer from one of the competitors. “We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them,” read the statement from TNT PR on X. “Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.” For the fans of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Co. it is good news but it’s not that simple.

Previous reports suggest that the WBD had debt which amounted to $39,148 million at the end of the first quarter of this year. However, Sports Business Journal confirmed that they would be able to match the offer because they were successful in securing a “letter of credit.” The deal proposed reads $76 Billion with a sum of $1.9 billion annually. TNT hasn’t revealed which offer they have matched but reportedly, it is for Amazon’s $20.9B for NBA and WNBA rights. But it all isn’t hopeful, because Brad Siegel suggested on X the mess this deal could create.

“This whole TNT-NBA stuff is a mess. TNT had matched Amazon’s $1.8M deal, but this is a situation that could very much end up in court.” The C package that the company has matched, includes Thursday night games following the NFL season, Friday or Saturday night games, the Emirates NBA Cup, early-round playoff games, and alternating conference finals. Yet, the matching part of the deal seems to be a problem.

The tech giant Amazon has over 200 million subscribers, thanks to Amazon Prime. WBD doesn’t have a similar reach. Their platform MAX has less than 100 million subscribers. The clarity on term matching could be taken to court, by the league. But also there could be a solution where the games are redistributed amongst the four partners.

Will Charles Barkley unretire his decision?

The Philadelphia 76ers legend said, “At this age, to go over and start over, I don’t know if I want to do that.” When asked about his plans to move to another network, Charles Barkley was very direct with his answer. Previously, Chuck also went on a rant on the handling of the entire bidding process from his bosses.

He even called the executives at WBD “clowns” and “fools” for not being able to provide any clarity for the future. At the time it was reported that TNT would match Amazon’s bid but Charles Barkley had no hope. But, hopefully, it’s overturned with news that WBD CEO David Zaslav had sent the offer. As per Tania Ganguli, an NBA spokesperson revealed that the offer has been received and is under process.

Even though at the last moment, the offer has been matched, it is safe to say that the saga is still not over. The new contracts will begin in 2025 and hopefully Chuck finds the situation favorable by then to unretire.