Adam Lefkoe on NBA on TNT’s future: ‘They’re doing everything they can’

Adam Lefkoe knew he wasn’t coming to Dan Patrick’s show on Thursday to discuss the Western Conference Finals.

Well, maybe he was going to talk some about the Dallas Mavericks-Minnesota Timberwolves, but Patrick wanted to know about the future of the NBA on TNT. And Lefkoe, of course, wears many hosts for TNT Sports, as he serves as a host on NBA on TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show, hosting the Tuesday editions of the show while filling the role that Ernie Johnson is known for.

So, while Lefkoe isn’t as candid as Charles Barkley and probably won’t go as scorched earth as his colleague did on The Dan Patrick Show, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how this works. Heck, he jokingly told a TNT Sports PR staffer that they gave Chuck some good talking points for Patrick’s show.

He knows the deal.

“I was sitting in a makeup chair yesterday getting ready for a show on TruTV and some of the higher people up were,” Lefkoe explained to Patrick. “They just said, ‘Listen, it’s not over. We’re still talking to them.’ I mean, you still have (David) Zaslav talking to Adam Silver; they’re still really, really trying. That’s what I’m being told.

“Very early on, I tried to remove a lot of my emotion from this. And part of it was talking to my agent, and he said, ‘I don’t think people realize that if another network is going to do this, first of all, TNT Sports can match. But they need to get all of the paperwork done before there’s a match.’ And that’s when my brain went, ‘Oh, I don’t think lawyers have ever rushed through paperwork and gotten rid of billable hours so that TNT can match really quickly.’

“And so, that’s what I thought has been funny this entire time has been all of these reports where it’s done. And then, the new media cycle right now of there’s sources, and that turns into an image of the inside guys with the text that says, ‘It’s over,’ and there’s no context, and there’s no reporting. And it just snowballs really quickly. That has been the part there, but in terms of the NBA on TNT next year, I’m being told that they’re doing everything they can right now to make sure that happens.”

Lefkoe may not have scorched earth takes like Sir Charles, but his behind-the-scenes perspective sheds light on the often-messy world of media negotiations. Only time will tell if TNT’s efforts translate into a successful deal.

[The Dan Patrick Show]