The future of Inside the NBA might be in doubt.
The NBA will commence a media rights deal next season that could see them leave their longtime media partner, Warner Bros. Discovery (formerly Turner Sports).
Imagining life without the NBA on TNT is a heck of a thing. Envisioning what that network might look like is another ordeal entirely.
That said, it’s an emotional time. Closure might be coming sooner than we think, so some are reflecting on what’s been and what we’ve experienced. One basketball author shared an incredible story about the Inside crew, particularly host Ernie Johnson.
Author Ben Kaplan shared a story on X on Monday evening about how Johnson and the network’s NBA department joined forces to assist Kaplan’s Bar Mitzvah.
https://twitter.com/bkaplan4/status/1787875524347380100
Kaplan explained that a video presentation occurred at his Bar Mitzvah. Initially, he was horrified, as Johnson and the crew – which at the time included Peter Vecsey — well before Charles Barkley came through — appeared on the screen.
But, as Kaplan said, this was a unique broadcast. They came together to talk about Kaplan “skipping school to go to the NBA.”
Kaplan shared that this happened because of his father, who cold-called TNT to see if Johnson would leave his son a voice message.
“To my dad’s shock, Ernie called back personally,” he revealed. Time went into doing this, and Johnson later repaid the favor by sending a personalized video to Kaplan’s father, who later passed away.
All he thinks about now is Johnson’s incredible generosity and kindness.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022