Recently, it was announced that “Inside The NBA” is headed to ESPN sometime in the not-so-distant future. This left fans with many questions, including whether or not Stephen A Smith will have any part in it. The network’s content president Burke Magnus addressed this question during a recent chat with Sports Illustrated. According to him, it’s not likely.
“We have no plans to do that,” he began. “And that’s because, frankly, the construct of the deal really doesn’t — that’s not how it was conceived. What is conceived is that Turner, as they have always done with this show, with this cast, with the people involved behind the scenes, are going to continue to do what they’ve always done. And we’re going to distribute it on the ESPN platform. Frankly, that’s exactly what we want. We don’t want to change it, we don’t want to interject new talent into it. We don’t want to really do anything to it.”
ESPN Content President Confirms There Are “No Plans” To Put Stephen A Smith On “Inside The NBA”
Stephen A. Smith in 2021. Tori Lynn Schneider / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Magnus’ clarification comes just a few days after Smith reacted to the news of “Inside The NBA” moving to ESPN for the upcoming season on The Stephen A. Smith Show. “Major credit goes to Commissioner Adam Silver and ESPN President James Pitaro for bringing this deal to life, allowing a much-loved show to remain in circulation, even as streaming rights shift hands,” he said at the time. “It’s fantastic to see the show still produced in Atlanta by the folks from TNT, now airing on ESPN and ABC.”
“This doesn’t affect me at all with ‘First Take’ and other projects I have going on,” he continued. “Plus, I’m thrilled for my friends—the hosts of ‘Inside the NBA.’ Ernie Johnson is a remarkable human being, and Shaquille O’Neal is like a brother to me. Kenny Smith and I go way back, and of course, Charles Barkley is someone I hold in high regard.”
LeBron James recently announced a social media break on Twitter after speaking out against the constant negativity in the sports media world. Well, those weren’t his direct words, but he did retweet a message from Rick Kleiman about the topic, later letting followers know that he’s temporarily heading off the grid. “And with that said I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care,” the NBA superstar shared. This prompted a lot of responses that baselessly connected him to the Diddy scandal, and many of them curiously came from more conservative individuals. We’re unaware of other contexts that maybe caused this specific response, but it was an odd phenomenon to witness.
Of course, LeBron James probably isn’t worried about any of that stuff, as he has other pressing extracurricular matters to attend off the court. They will lead some hate his way regardless thanks to his massive status, such as a lawsuit against him and Netflix for alleged copyright infringement. Many folks blasted this alleged move and brought more clowning out of it, but such is the nature of Internet discourse.
But LeBron James being off social media means we won’t have to hear about his bizarre dreams any more, which is surely a plus for many fans out there. “Just woke up from having a dream I was playing for Duke for Coach K inside Cameron Indoor Stadium!” he tweeted the other day. “It was INSANE in there. Told Coach K it was an honor to suit up for him and he said the same thing back to me. He’s such a LEGEND! Then….. It turned right into a concert. Snoop & Dre were the performers and they was doing the song ‘The Next Episode.’ The roof inside Cameron damn near came off! Haha. Then my [alarm] went off and I woke up.” Cool story, Bron…
Meanwhile, another possible cause for this social media break is some recent teasing around how much LeBron James spends on his body. But we have no idea why conservatives in particular would barrage him with this Diddy narrative over this social media break. We get that they’re peeved about the Kamala Harris endorsement, but still…
LeBron James announced that he’s quitting social media for the “time being” in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday afternoon. He had just shared a post from Rich Kleiman, in which the entrepreneur complained about negatively in the sports world while praising the rare sincerity of JJ Reddick and LeBron James’ short-lived Mind the Game podcast.
“With so much hate and negativity in the world today, it confuses me why some of National sports media still think that the best way to cover sports is through negative takes,” Kleiman wrote. “We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same? It’s only click bait when you say it. When the platform is so big, you can make the change and allow us all an escape from real life negativity. I for one find it all a waste of breath. The Olympics and JJ and Bron’s show was the future of what this can and should all be.” After reposting the statement, James wrote: “And with that said I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care.”
Nov 1, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (left) watches guard Bronny James (right) warm-up before the start of the game against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Fans quickly brought up the nepotism accusations LeBron’s son, Bronny, has faced online. One user in the replies joked: “The only reason you’re even on the Lakers is because of your son. You’re a complete nepotism signing. You weren’t even good enough to make a college basketball roster.” While more brought up the constant criticism of Bronny, others cited the NBA’s recent dip in ratings and more possible reasons for LeBron to want to log off.
LeBron James Leaves Social Media
LeBron’s departure from social media comes and the Lakers announced that Bronny will be competing on and off with the team’s G-League affiliate. Check out LeBron James’ full statement on leaving social media below.
Cam’ron says he’s taking the blame for LaMello Ball getting hit with a $100,000 fine after making a homophobic remark during a recent postgame interview. While discussing his team’s defensive performance against the Milwaukee Bucks, Ball remarked: “Yeah, we loaded up — no homo — but that’s what we wanted.” Cam discussed the situation with Mase on their sports talk show, It Is What It Is, on Tuesday.
“I blame myself, I really do, man,” he said. “I blame the east side of Harlem. You got this in Jefferson Projects probably in 1996 when we were saying this. And before that — what the fuck? God damn, we did this a long time. To be honest with you, this is why we started saying ‘pause.’ We used to say what Melo said, but we were like, ‘The people are sensitive, you get fined.’ And that’s why we don’t say it anymore.”
LaMello Ball Goes Up For A Shot Against The Brooklyn Nets
Nov 19, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (1) takes a shot against Brooklyn Nets forwards Dorian Finney-Smith (28) and Cameron Johnson (2) during the first quarter at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
From there, Mase joined in to agree with Cam. “Just for that? My goodness […] I mean, people gotta be responsible for their words but I think if you know these guys are playing, it should be taken a little bit lighter. It’s not like he said it towards anybody living a certain way. He was just joking,” he said.
Cam’ron & Mase Speak On LaMelo Ball’s Fine
Ball has already apologized for the comment. “Before we get started, I just want to address the comment yesterday. I really didn’t mean anything [by it] and don’t want to offend anybody. I’ve got love for everybody, and I don’t discriminate,” he told reporters during a postgame interview after the Hornets’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Check out Cam’ron’s full comments on LaMelo Ball’s fine below.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum is the latest person to feel his humorous wrath. Today (November 19), Vince Staples and Jayson Tatum came face-to-face in a new commercial for the Jordan brand (viewable here).
Instead of using his beloved lyricism on full display, Vince channelled his words for another reason. As highlights of Tatum’s Championship season took over the screen, Vince gave Tatum a piece of his mind.
“What type of dude is Jayson Tatum,” asked Vince. “The type of dude who’d crush a team and then say some cold sh*t like, ‘We just played our game and the rest took care of itself.’”
As Vince pointed out, Tatum is a many of few words but when he does speak out against his opponents it cuts deeps. However, Tatum manages to keep a cool head or so Vince argued, saying: “The type that have a whole city and internet, booing him. And he’s just smiling.”
Before the clip ends, Vince has one more grievance to air as a long-suffering Los Angeles Clippers fan. “That sh*t really message me up, man,” he said.
Unfazed by it all, Tatum laughs off Vince’s monologue. In Tatum’s eyes, it doesn’t matter who hates him because his partner, singer Ella Mai and their child provides more than enough love to make up for it.
Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul was the boxing event to end all boxing events. At least, in 2024. The former, a sports legend, and the latter, a social media sensation, did their parts to build up the hype. Unfortunately, things did not go smoothly come fight night. Fans were disappointed with the quality of the fight, and the ways in which both fighters seemed to be dancing around each other in later rounds. Well, those who got the chance to see the later rounds, that is. Netflix’s live stream buffered repeatedly during the fight, and now the platform is being sued!
The suit was filed by Ronald “Blue” Denton. The Florida native claimed that he struggled to watch the fight, along with thousands of others, due to the poor quality of Netflix’s stream. He specifically cited “legendary problems, such as: no access, streaming glitches, and buffering issues.” Denton feels that Netflix breached their contract agreement to stream the fight. He is consequently seeking unspecified damages from the streaming titan. Denton’s complaints should come as no surprise to anyone who tried to watch the Mike Tyson Vs. Jake Paul fight themselves.
Social media was swamped with complaints from users who couldn’t tell what was happening in real time. It got so bad, in fact, that Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone sent an email to employees addressing the issues. She acknowledged that there were unforeseen problems with the stream, while at the same time noting that Netflix drew record breaking viewership during the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight. “We don’t want to dismiss the poor experience of some members,” Stone explained via email. “Know we have room for improvement, but still consider this event a huge success.”
While Mike Tyson nor Jake Paul have commented on the streaming debacle, other celebrities have weighed in. Howard Stern, for example, blasted Netflix and urged them to get things under control before their plan to stream football games on Christmas Day. Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul may have resulted in a lawsuit, but a botched NFL broadcast would be, in Stern’s mind, an even greater debacle. “You f**k people’s football, there is hell to pay,” the radio host told Sirius XM fans. “You better not. I don’t know how this stuff works, but you’ve got to make sure it works.”
Mike Tyson fought against Jake Paul this past weekend in a Netflix boxing match that had millions of people watching. Overall, it was a fight that a lot of people were dreading. Not because of the lack of entertainment, but because people did not want to see Tyson get destroyed by a younger man. Moreover, the fact that the younger man was Jake Paul made things a whole lot worse. However, in the end, it was not nearly as bad as some thought it would be.
Tyson was able to last all eight rounds and there were times where he appeared to be the better fighter. However, he simply could not withstand Paul’s stamina, which makes a whole lot of sense given the age factor at play here. Ultimately, it was an intriguing fight for a lot of reasons. We even got a viral moment before the fight in which Tyson’s bare butt was displayed for millions of fans. This has subsequently led to a lucrative offer from the Adult Film website, CamSoda.
Essentially, the brand is offering Tyson $250K to show off his butt for an hour during a live stream. “I understand this offer may be a far cry from what you just raked in from the fight, but let’s face it — maybe it’s time to hang up the glove,” Vice President of CamSoda Daryn Parker said. “I think this offer is the perfect way to still get in front of people and perform in a different, less strenuous way. Plus, you don’t have to worry about anyone biting or going after your ears.”
It is highly unlikely that Tyson is going to accept this offer. Ultimately, it feels extremely unserious. CamSoda is known for taking advantage of viral trends with these kinds of offers, and the Tyson situation is absolutely no exception. As for boxing, Tyson believes he will get in the ring again and may even fight Logan Paul. If anything, this will make a whole lot of money.
For years, Christmas Day has been the NBA’s biggest single day on the regular season calendar. The league builds its schedule around putting five marquee matchups on Christmas, and for a long time, they only faced NFL competition when Dec. 25 fell on a Sunday.
However, the NFL has played games on Christmas each of the past four years, and the big ratings they received were too tantalizing to go back to the way things were. After insisting that they wouldn’t put games on Christmas when it lands on a Tuesday or Wednesday, the NFL changed course when Netflix came calling, offering hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast a pair of NFL Christmas games each of the next three years. That was the NFL officially ending their détente with the NBA over Christmas, and making clear that they weren’t going to cede the holiday back to basketball.
If that wasn’t enough, the NFL decided to run up the score on the NBA over the weekend, announcing late Sunday night that Beyoncé will perform at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game in her hometown of Houston. The one thing the NBA has going for it over the NFL on Christmas is that they are on linear television, with games on ABC and ESPN, while the NFL is on a streamer (albeit the largest one there is). As we have seen with Thursday Night Football and playoff games on Peacock, there is a pretty sizable drop-off in viewership for similar marquee NFL games from linear TV to streaming. However, the way to get more people over there is to give the non-football fans a reason to want to tune-in, and a Beyoncé halftime show is a sure-fire way to add some serious attention.
NBA fans and media have called on the league to fight back and reclaim their place as the Christmas headliner, but the truth is, there’s just nothing to do when the NFL decides to plant its flag. The NBA could put together its absolute best teams and have every star healthy, get Drake and Kendrick Lamar to squash their beef at midcourt during halftime, and they would barely put a dent in the ratings for the worst possible NFL game. Add in the fact that the NFL has a pair of really good games this year — Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans — and there’s just no chance for the NBA to get its corner fully back.
Being able to add a Super Bowl-caliber halftime performer (Beyoncé literally did one back in 2013) to the Christmas slate is just another example of the NFL’s embarrassment of riches. Could the NBA try and do more to add some cultural cache to their Christmas games? Sure, they could look at adding a performer in one of the marquee games, but halftime in NBA games is shorter than in the NFL, limiting the time on a performance (and for a performance set-up). That limits what you can do, and they’re just not going to get someone at the level of Beyoncé in that same spot — it doesn’t hurt the NFL that Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z curates the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime shows.
The reality is, the NBA can’t consider the NFL a direct competitor and instead needs to figure out how they can best serve the audience that would pick watching basketball over football. There is nowhere to hide from the NFL at this point. If there is money to be made and ratings to be had, the NFL has made it very clear they will be there to scoop up as much cash and as many eyeballs as they can. The NBA has tried moving off Thursdays until the NFL season ends, and held off on marquee showcase games on weekends until after football — it’s just not worth trying to challenge the NFL’s ratings superiority, particularly when there are nights when the NFL doesn’t air games. The question for the NBA now has to be, will they let their Christmas schedule become the latest casualty?
They still have some advantages in being on ABC and ESPN rather than Netflix, but the NFL moving off TV also makes it harder to benefit from the potential for fans to bounce back-and-forth because that involves the added barrier of exiting one app and opening another. As such, the best way forward isn’t to try and beat the NFL at their own game, as that’s not possible. Instead, the NBA has to keep looking at how to create the best basketball product and present that to their audience, while figuring out how to sustainably build their fan base.
The NFL, put simply, doesn’t have to worry about the same things the NBA does right now. They can send a Giants-Panthers game, featuring two of the worst teams in the league, overseas and sell it out while millions stateside wake up and tune in. They can withstand injuries and star absences and still clean up, as tens of millions of people are going to watch Cooper Rush vs. Tommy DeVito on Thanksgiving, while the NBA faces huge backlash for the same thing.
That’s because football is king in the United States. For as much as people want to come up with a magic fix that will make the NBA suddenly explode in popularity to be alongside the NFL, that just doesn’t exist because they aren’t playing football. As such, all they can do is focus on themselves and figure out what they can do to make the product as appealing as they can, with a focus on those who want to watch basketball. They can still go up against the NFL and do well on Christmas — last year was the least-watched NBA Christmas on record, and it was still their biggest viewership day of the season. The real challenge is how they build their basketball base, because you aren’t going to win a battle for casual eyeballs going up against the NFL, and especially the NFL plus Beyoncé.
As such, the NBA has to ignore the proverbial scoreboard between them and the NFL on Christmas. It’s a fight they will never win, but also, it doesn’t have to be viewed as a fight, even though on Dec. 26, there will inevitably be dozens of posts about how the NFL dusted the NBA in ratings, with a massive peak surely coming around the time of Beyoncé’s performance. But the NBA just can’t worry about that, because the NFL beats everyone and everything in the ratings game.
Instead, they have to keep the focus on the basketball and what they can do to get the best product on the court, all while accepting that the NFL is a ratings behemoth and adjusting expectations accordingly. There isn’t a quick fix that suddenly closes that gap, but one also shouldn’t be seen as necessary from the league’s point of view, because they have an 11-year, $76 billion national TV deal locked in. ESPN will certainly want to explore avenues to boost viewership — that’s their job — but the league should be taking the long view here, and that means ignoring the idea that they should be competing in the same weight class as the NFL and figuring out instead how to entertain basketball fans.
Once the NFL season ends, the NBA still becomes the biggest game in town. It doesn’t pull in football numbers (because, again, nothing does), but the Finals still pull in 10+ million viewers a game even in a down year, and there’s plenty of interest in the playoffs. I’m loathe to agree with arguments that the sky is falling and the NBA is in some terrible position in terms of people not wanting to watch basketball anymore. That said, if they are going to keep an 82-game schedule (which naturally makes each game less intriguing than a 17-game schedule like the NFL has where, every game feels vital to your chances at the playoffs) that starts in football season, they have to figure out how to raise the value of those games for the viewer, and that starts with raising their value to the players.
The NBA Cup is a great example of that, as they’ve gotten the buy-in from the players necessary to give November and December basketball some stakes that it previously lacked, and the result has been really fun basketball. The Christmas Day games also still matter to players, even if they’re no longer in a complete standalone spot on the sports calendar, but the truth is, the NBA has to be even smarter about who they put on the Christmas schedule. They can’t risk a repeat of last year’s Heat-Sixers game without Joel Embiid or Jimmy Butler, which made that the least-watched Christmas game in history, and this year they seem to have learned a lesson, pairing a team whose interest is driven by a single star (the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama) against a legacy franchise (the Knicks) that have a built-in floor for viewership.
I also think the NBA can look at this as an opportunity now to take some swings, knowing the NFL is going to hold casual eyeballs, and give some up-and-coming teams (say, the Thunder) a little bit of shine in hopes of delivering better games. Bank on better basketball to bring people in, rather than just hoping for star power, especially as the generation led by LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant that has always been able to bring in eyeballs ages out. And of course, try to provide a highly-competitive game for your basketball diehards to enjoy, because who knows? If the NFL game is a dud, you might even get people flipping over once Beyoncé steps off the stage.
After many hours of preparation it’s finally time to enjoy Howard University’s 100th Homecoming celebration featuring a collaboration between the school’s talented marching band and legendary hip-hop producer, Just Blaze.
We pick up the HBCU Homecoming series with only a day left before Director of Bands Chancellor Mills gets to prove himself in his first year in the position with the help of more than 100 band members and his staff. “It’s all in the planning, first and foremost,” Mills said in preparation for the event. “We don’t want to throw anything together and just put it out there; it’s huge this year.” As Mills said, the planning is critical, as the pressure of the occasion couldn’t be any higher, with current students and alumni all expecting a great show.
“This performance is just going to signify where this program is,” said Mills. “It’s going to dictate how we’re going to move for the next 3-5 years. It’s significant in terms of what we want to give back to our community.”
Fortunately, the hard work pays off as the band comes out at halftime to give the crowd their best with renditions of hip-hop classics produced by Just Blaze, including Joe Budden’s “Pump it Up” and “What We Do” by Freeway, who appeared to perform the song in-person. “I’ve had my songs played at a million sporting events,” Blaze said of the performance. “This is just kind of a great add-on to that part of the legacy. It sounded amazing.”
As Blaze says in the episode, the party was far from over after the performance. Check out additional footage from the band’s night performance and more to see how the performance was received.
Charlotte Hornets superstar LaMelo Ball was fined $100,000 by the NBA this past weekend and for good reason. Following a game, Ball said the term “no homo.” Overall, a simple “pause” probably would have sufficed. However, he ended up taking it way too far. Although there were plenty of fans who were not offended, the league has to protect its image. Consequently, they came through with a well-deserved fine.
Following the fine, Hornets head coach Charles Lee spoke out on what happened. As he explains, LaMelo is very apologetic. “As an organization, that’s obviously not something that we condone. Our standards and what is required of our players in our environment that we create is really important to us,” Lee said. “I spoke to Melo and he’s obviously very apologetic from what I’ve seen since I’ve been around him. He loves everyone and he’s a joy to have around in the facility, and that’s not typically how he operates.”
“As an organization, that’s obviously not something that we condone. Our standards and what is required of our players in our environment that we create is really important to us.”
“He and I talked about the seriousness of the situation and how he needs to conduct himself going forward, he understands what’s going to be expected of him. I look forward to seeing him grow from this moment. We apologize for what happened,”Lee continued. “He and I talked about it and he definitely said, ‘going forward, I want to be better and I don’t want to see that happen.’ So, for somebody to use those words and say it out of his mouth, we will make sure that we hold him accountable to that.”
This is a teachable moment for LaMelo and we hope he learns from it. So far this season, he has been playing incredibly well. You never want to see a young player squander that because of a poor judgment call. Only time will tell whether or not Ball truly changes his ways.
Charles Lee on LaMelo Ball’s fine: