TNT losing rights to broadcast NBA games after nearly 40 years has been one of the biggest stories in the media business for the better part of two years. There was a lawsuit, a settlement, a bidding war for Charles Barkley, and countless messy headlines. Somehow, Dan Le Batard missed all of it.
Despite interviewing Inside the NBA anchor Ernie Johnson earlier this week about how he was approaching the final days of TNT’s coverage, Le Batard welcomed game analyst Stan Van Gundy onto his show on Thursday with a peculiar question about Van Gundy’s future.
After news broke recently that Van Gundy was one of several newly hired analysts at Amazon Prime Video, Le Batard said he was “taken aback” to see the news and asked Van Gundy “how or why is all of that happening?”
“I was taken aback the other day because it was reported that you were going to Amazon,” Le Batard said. “And I thought everything was going great where you were and I just didn’t even know any of that was happening, because you’re one of the best broadcasters in the game. So how or why is all of that happening, and congratulations on the new gig. Are these your last games?”
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Van Gundy handled it smoothly, reminding Le Batard of the very obvious reason he is leaving TNT.
“They’re TNT’s last games. We’re headed out of the NBA business at the end of this series, so I had to find somewhere else to go,” the former coach said. “If you’re not going to NBA games, I’m not of a lot of value. So I had to. It was out of necessity. I had to find somewhere else to go, and I was very lucky that Amazon was willing to give me another opportunity.”
Perhaps Le Batard was trying to word his question cleverly to get a confirmation out of Van Gundy. Amazon has not officially announced his hire.
However, the two go back decades to when Le Batard was covering Van Gundy as coach of the Miami Heat. And given how comfortably Van Gundy confirmed the news anyway, it seems far-fetched to think Dan Le Batard would play dumb just to get his friend to talk about a reported new job. The more logical explanation is that Le Batard simply suffered a bad brain flub at precisely the wrong time.
The veteran host caught himself as he wrapped the interview with Van Gundy, complimenting TNT’s coverage of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“You guys are going out with a bang,” Le Batard said. “If these are the last games for TNT, TNT does it the best to the very end. Because all of this stuff has been wildly entertaining to watch.”
In case anyone else needs the reminder for the umpteenth time: These are the final days of the NBA on TNT.
