NBA's flagship show could also head to Amazon

Jay Marine, Prime Video's head of sports and advertising, told Sports Business Journal that his company wanted to bring "Inside" to the streaming service, calling it "the gold standard studio program" and the inspiration for their own "Thursday Night Football" pregame show. For Thursday night NBA telecasts, Prime Video could simply import the existing show.

There are a few factors that could hurt Amazon's pursuit of the show. First, there's the possibility that Warner Brothers Discovery will sue the NBA after it rejected the offer purportedly matching Amazon's offer. Then, there's the long-term contracts the team signed two years ago.

Ernie Johnson's longtime loyalty is to Turner, who employs him as part of its baseball coverage and also employed his father, Ernie Johnson Sr., for many years on broadcasts of Atlanta Braves games. His family lives in Atlanta, so he likely prefers to stay and keep working on baseball and the NCAA Tournament at the sports department he helped build.

There's also Charles Barkley's announcement that he'll retire from television after the next NBA season, even though Draymond Green believes Barkley was only "in his feelings" about TNT losing the NBA and not serious about quitting.

Technically, Amazon Prime isn't exactly television, so Barkley could retire from television and still appear on a streaming service. He's very loyal to TNT and the "Inside" family, but the chance to stay with his colleagues might change his mind. So might Amazon's vast reserves of cash.

On-air talent for Amazon's Thursday football telecasts has been very well compensated. Al Michaels earns $11 million per season, just slightly more than Kirk Herbstreit's salary of $10-plus million. Barkley would cost more, but if he does have an escape clause in his TNT deal if it loses basketball, he'd have a lot of suitors.

Marine wasn't yet willing to commit to building a studio in Atlanta to preserve the program, but they have a year to figure it out. It's a long shot, but perhaps the greatest sports show in television history could also become the greatest sports show in streaming video history.