It wasn’t a surprise over the weekend to see that Amazon is pursuing an NBA package, or that it wants to make its game nights into a full slate of content for hoops fans. However, if Prime Video is indeed the first streamer to cut a deal with the NBA, the deal will have to do many things at once to satisfy all parties and improve on Amazon’s Thursday Night Football experiment.
Amazon isn’t eligible to negotiate with the NBA until ESPN and WBD’s exclusive window is over, but it’s never too early to start a wishlist. Here’s what Prime Video has to do to nail its NBA coverage:
Commit to a smart, loose studio show
Prime earned high praise for hiring outspoken, nontraditional voices for its NFL studio coverage on TNF. Sure, the show is in trusty hands with Charissa Thompson anchoring and Tony Gonzalez, but Amazon took a leap of faith bringing in non-quarterbacks like Andrew Whitworth and Richard Sherman. The one QB on the panel, Ryan Fitzpatrick, brings great perspective as a journeyman and is known for his honesty.
The NBA has plenty of popular, exciting voices waiting for a shot to burst onto a bigger platform. TNT has had the same Inside the NBA crew for over a decade now, while ESPN’s revolving door is just a vehicle for commercials. With potentially a lesser emphasis on commercials and the desire to make a splash, the studio is where Prime Video can make its mark on NBA coverage.
Now that Showtime Sports properties face an uncertain future, why not give Kevin Garnett a call? Every time Tracy McGrady gets interviewed, he makes headlines. Both have TV experience. If WBD wants to keep the talented (and potentially soon to be retired) Candace Parker on its B-team, could Amazon get her? J.A. Adande left ESPN a while ago and has a nice gig running the sports J-school at Northwestern, but could that Amazon money be enough to woo him back to the media? It probably wouldn’t be hard to convince Rachel Nichols to leave the Undisputed desk and the spray of Skip Bayless’s spittle.
There are tons of experienced, interesting journalists and athletes who could create a great studio product for Prime Video. The company’s execs just need to be creative and ready to spend.
Resist the urge to go familiar with the broadcast crew
If there’s anything Amazon has failed at in its first two NFL seasons, it’s the booth of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. Viewers largely agree Michaels took the check and has lost the command and passion that made him a stalwart at NBC for so long. And his chemistry with Herbstreit, who swoops in from the college football world midweek, is nonexistent.
That’s not to say Prime Video should go too far outside the box. They just need to balance the need to make games feel special and like big events with providing something viewers won’t get elsewhere, particularly when it comes to color commentary.
To be more specific, Prime Video needs to resist the urge to go after Chris Webber or Mark Jackson (or even Marv Albert), who recently departed the top crews at their respective networks. Instead, they should be looking at the lower teams at those networks as well as local broadcasts to find the next great game-callers.
Because Prime Video is likely to have two games a night if it mirrors the current ESPN and TNT setups, the streamer will need two crews. The first calls for play-by-play should be Ian Eagle and Mark Jones, two popular veterans who bring a strong presence to the mic.
For color, credibility comes from experience and prep. The best analysts can focus viewers’ eyes on the most important factors in a big matchup while also continuing to educate the diehards. It would be hard not to call JJ Redick (who already has a partnership with Amazon owned-Wondery for his popular NBA podcast). It’s probably worth checking what Steve Kerr’s plans are after the 2024 Olympics. Chris Paul’s contract ends after this season, and there should be a bidding war for him just like there is for soon-to-be-retired QBs.
If Amazon looks a little deeper, they could find a real lottery ticket. Andraya Carter is among ESPN’s fastest risers and incredibly insightful no matter her role. Sarah Kustok has been elite on YES Nets games forever and played in college, too. Brian Scalabrine is a recognizable personality, does national radio, and is extremely polished on Celtics broadcasts.
Because the NBA does not have the national development pipeline due to its daily, regionalized schedule, Amazon will have to get its best talent scouts out there to find the next great team. But the talent is there.
Consolidate the secondary content
Look, it’s no surprise a company that started in e-commerce and web servers would go for the masses over the minutiae. Amazon didn’t become a juggernaut by appealing to tiny subsections of the marketplace or niche audiences.
In their NFL content, Prime Video has hired companies that make extremely popular stuff and built out NFL products around that. Dude Perfect and LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment aren’t the first brands most football fans would associate with the NFL, but they create entertaining side broadcasts alongside the Michaels-Herbie mainstage.
This year, Amazon also brought on celebrity chef David Chang to do Parts Unknown-style food and culture segments in each week’s home market. The company also developed a feed using its machine learning technology to predict and analyze TNF games in real time.
The opportunities are similar for the NBA, although the calendar likely moves a little too quickly to go so all-in on every game. It’s easy to imagine Prime Video playing off the popularity of fashion, wine, investments or cars among NBA players to put together a great segment or two in each city. And why couldn’t Garnett bring back a version of his Area 21 show from his TNT days?
That brings us to the features. From TNF to College GameDay to the MLB playoffs on Fox, great video essays are still important to many sports broadcasts to help paint the picture of the characters and stories within the games. Fortunately, Amazon already hired an incredible talent on that side of the business in Taylor Rooks.
TNF marked Rooks’ first major foray into football, but she still hosts a basketball-focused interview show for Bleacher Report that could easily translate to interviews and features in an Amazon NBA content mix. If Nichols or Adande or anyone similar were brought on for studio hosting, they could capably add to Rooks’ work as well. NBA athletes are among the most famous in the world. It would be a missed opportunity for Amazon to not maximize the access to them.
Overall, it’s not easy to bridge the gap between obsessives and casuals for any sports broadcast. Every other American sport is in the shadow of the NFL, which has 100% brand awareness and a perfect attention-keeping schedule.
And Prime Video’s bottom line involves much more than ad sales or video views.
But if Amazon does indeed pursue a weekly NBApalooza, they have the chance to combine lessons learned from TNF combined with what’s missing from ESPN and WBD’s current NBA coverage to produce a much-needed injection of creativity and passion to the sport in its new broadcast rights cycle.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.