On Saturday, the final remnants of TNT”s stake in the previous NBA media rights deal, its partnership with NBA TV, came to a close with the broadcast of the 2025 Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony. But before signing off for a final time, Jared Greenberg and Steve Smith shared a message with the viewers to inform them of the importance of the broadcast.
With TNT losing its rights to live NBA broadcast starting in the 2025-26 NBA season, TNT Sports CEO Luis Silberwasser informed employees back in June that their deal with NBA TV would end as of October 1, despite Silberwasser relaying that they had made “several proposals” to keep operating the network.
Ultimately, it seems as if both NBA TV and TNT opted to cut their partnership short several weeks earlier than the previously agreed-upon date. During NBA TV’s pre-show coverage of the 2025 Hall of Fame enshrinement on Saturday night, Jared Greenberg and Steve Smith let the audience know that it would be the final TNT broadcast on NBA TV.
“As we get you set for the Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, I want to take a moment here to mention that tonight is TNT Sports’ last ever broadcast on NBA TV. It has been 17 glorious years.”
“It has Jared,” added Smith. “We want to say thank you to everybody. It’s been a great run.”
NBA TV signs off for the final time 🫡 pic.twitter.com/Z3W2qHpWqS
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) September 6, 2025
This moment certainly serves as an incredibly bittersweet moment for fans of NBA TV. As Greenberg alluded to, Turner Sports has operated NBA TV since October 2008.
And while it doesn’t exactly make all that much sense for the NBA to have TNT continue to operate the NBA TV entity, given that the network no longer has league broadcast rights, a change in who operates the league network is expected to “look a lot different” in 2025, which isn’t always a positive thing. So it will certainly be interesting to see what changes do come from the new-look NBA TV moving forward.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.