Nbc, Turner Pay $2.64 Billion To Keep Rights
NBC and Turner Sports were intent on keeping their exclusive hold on NBA games. And they were clearly willing to pay for it.
The NBA, after talking to other networks, renewed its contracts Tuesday with NBC and Turner for $2.64 billion over four years, more than double the value of the current deal.
“The key to this deal is exclusivity, which we can pass on to advertisers, sales staff and affiliates. It creates a sellers’ market,” NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol said.
Commissioner David Stern said the league chose to keep its current partners rather than maximize its revenue.
“In negotiations, you can always say there was a little bit more money to be gotten, but sometimes it comes time to end it and move on,” Stern said of the deal, which gives the league $1.75 billion from NBC and $890 million from TNT.
To offset the increase in rights fees from $750 million by NBC and $352 million by TNT, the NBA awarded NBC eight additional playoff games and seven regular-season games in early prime time. TNT was given 10 additional regular-season games, including a Thanksgiving night game.
Deadly disagreement
Two bystanders in Philadelphia were killed after a disagreement about who was the better point guard, Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers or Gary Payton of the Seattle SuperSonics.
Words turned to gunfire Sunday after the game between the 76ers and Sonics. Neither of the victims attended the game, the 76ers said.
Derrick Washington, 21, and his cousin, Jameka Wright, 22, were killed in the crossfire in the Southwark Plaza public housing development.
Washington was a father of one and Wright was a mother of two.
Police were looking for the triggerman, who fled with a group of men.
On the courts
David Robinson tipped in his own missed layup at the buzzer as the San Antonio Spurs rallied to edge the Minnesota Timberwolves 93-92 in Minneapolis.
Robinson had a season-high 36 points and 16 rebounds as the Spurs improved to 6-1, their best start since 1991-92. Rookie Tim Duncan added a career-best 22 points and nine rebounds for San Antonio, which rallied from a 12-point third-quarter deficit.
Shaquille O’Neal scored 25 of his season-high 37 points in the first half as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the host Dallas Mavericks 118-96 for their fifth consecutive win. The Lakers’ 5-0 start is their best since 1987-88 when they got off to a franchise-best 8-0.
At Cleveland, Shawn Kemp scored 21 points and the new-look Cavaliers blew out the struggling Chicago Bulls 101-80.