Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to reframe its relationship with the NBA, with CEO David Zaslav now saying it was a “great decision” to not retain live rights with the league.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference, Zaslav said not renewing live NBA game rights has allowed the TNT Sports parent to reconstruct its sports rights portfolio with other properties such as the French Open, NASCAR, and simulcasts of the College Football Playoff. Perhaps most importantly to WBD, that retooled set of rights now comes at a much lower aggregate cost to the company.

“Our job is to make sure we have enough quality sports so that we’re creating real value for the distributors. And it turns out not doing the NBA was a great decision for us,” Zaslav said. “We picked up the College Football Playoff, we picked up NASCAR in the summer, we have a great lineup globally, and we saved a huge amount of money.”

Zaslav’s comments at the conference amplified those he made last week with the release of WBD’s fourth-quarter earnings. There, he said, “We don’t need any more sports anywhere in the world to support our business.”

Indeed, WBD has been able to retain key distribution agreements and at better rates, in part through the strength of its non-sports content.

“We’re getting [subscription] fee increases across the board,” Zaslav said. 

The latest NBA comments, however, differ significantly from the prior position of Zaslav and WBD regarding the league. After the NBA elected last summer to strike deals instead with Amazon, NBCUniversal, and ESPN, WBD sued the league, alleging breach of contract. The legal matter quickly grew bitter, and was seemingly headed toward trial before a large-scale settlement was ultimately struck. 

That deal, also heavily involving ESPN, will see WBD retaining U.S. highlight rights for the NBA, and it will license out the famed Inside the NBA show to the Disney-owned network.

“A lot of the young generation don’t want to watch the whole game,” Zaslav said. “They want to go to one place. [Our highlights] are almost like a RedZone for basketball. So we think that’s a great growth engine.”

Measured on Sports

Zaslav, meanwhile, reiterated several other points from last week’s earnings report, namely that he views sports as often a lesser priority compared to other intellectual property that it can fully own and monetize over a long-term period. 

“Sports is a rental business. And so you, you’ve got to look and say, ‘Are we going to be able to make money on this?’ We’re money-good on virtually all of our sports,” Zaslav said. “We’re not going to pay more than we think we can afford or we can make money on. We’d rather invest. If we saved a huge amount of money by not doing the NBA [live rights], it’s more money that we could spend on the quality content that we can make global, that we think can strategically help us.”

NASCAR revealed that the teams’ share of its media-rights revenue split has increased to 49% under the sport’s new charter agreements, in a counterclaim filed Wednesday against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which first sued NASCAR last year.

That’s a roughly 25% increase from the split that teams had been receiving by the end of the previous charter agreements that ran from 2016 to 2024, which was approximately 40% of media revenue, according to NASCAR’s legal filing. NASCAR is in the first season of new seven-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deals with Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon, and TNT Sports.

The original lawsuit from 23XI, which is owned by Michael Jordan, and Front Row called NASCAR “monopolistic bullies.” The teams were the only two that did not sign the most recent charter agreement (but are still allowed to compete this season) as they seek more revenue. 

However, a lawyer representing NASCAR said 23XI and Front Row have not laid out how much more money they want. 

“I don’t know what they think is fair,” Chris Yates of Latham & Watkins LLP said at a virtual media briefing Wednesday. “They have never explained that. I have no idea what they think the appropriate split should be. I have no idea because it’s never been articulated in any filing I’ve seen.”

No Settlement in Sight

NASCAR does not intend to reach a settlement with 23XI and Front Row, Yates said, or renegotiate the terms of the current charter agreements. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’re not going to let 23XI and Front Row misuse the antitrust laws.” NASCAR will participate in the court-ordered mediation process, and a trial that is scheduled to begin in December. 

Wednesday’s filing also alleges that 23XI Racing president Curtis Polk, a longtime rep of Jordan and co-owner of 23XI, “played an active role in [an] illegal conspiracy” against NASCAR.

TKO Group Holdings Inc., already a significant force in combat sports, is expanding its presence and moving into boxing. 

The parent company of World Wrestling Entertainment and Ultimate Fighting Championship has completed a multiyear agreement with the Saudi General Entertainment Authority and Sela, a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, to create a new boxing league. The promotion would seek to take on other major boxing promoters including Golden Boy Promotions, Top Rank, and Matchroom Boxing. 

TKO will be the managing partner of the joint venture, leading day-to-day operations and management. The first event from the new promotion is targeted for 2026. UFC president Dana White and WWE president Nick Khan will oversee the executive leadership of the boxing effort.

Over the past generation, boxing has struggled to maintain the type of mainstream prominence it had through much of the 20th century. TKO is looking to change that, in part through a significant jolt of Saudi resources. The deal will see TKO working closely with HE Turki Alalshikh, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority chair. 

“This is a strategic opportunity to reimagine the sport of boxing globally,” said TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro. “TKO has the deep expertise, promotional prowess, and long-standing relationships. HE Turki Alalshikh and Sela share our passion and vision for evolving the current model. Together, we can bring the sweet science back to its rightful place in the forefront of the global sports ecosystem.”

Financial terms were not disclosed, but last week Shapiro said the pact would see TKO receiving an initial fee of “$10 million-plus.” The pact, however, also contemplates the development of combines and academies to develop new boxers, and access for those athletes to the existing UFC Performance Institute. 

“We’re not putting any money in, we’re not putting any capital in, we’re not on the hook for any [costs],” Shapiro said in a recent Endeavor earnings call.

The move also extends a fast-growing role for Saudi Arabia in global sports that already has the country heavily involved in golf, Formula One, soccer, and through TKO, mixed martial arts, and pro wrestling. Those moves have prompted repeated claims of “sportswashing” as a means to deflect attention from human rights abuses in the country. 

For TKO, meanwhile, the formal entry into boxing closely follows the completion of a $3.25 billion deal to bring On Location, Professional Bull Riders, and IMG into the company, as well as a recent move to create a multi-event “TKO Takeover” in Kansas City involving WWE, UFC, and PBR.

On Friday, the Sixers finally announced that 2022–2023 MVP Joel Embiid would miss the rest of the season due to injury—a signal that Philadelphia, despite being in striking distance of the play-in tournament, was finally ready to focus on next year.

It was a sobering reality for the Sixers, who entered the season with the eighth-best championship odds and were projected to win more than 50 games after adding nine-time All-Star Paul George in the offseason. But the silver lining is a better chance to keep their first-round pick, which would belong to the Thunder if it does not fall within the top six. 

The Sixers are currently tied with the Nets for the sixth-best odds to win the draft lottery.

The Spurs were also battling to make the play-in, especially after acquiring All-Star De’Aaron Fox at the trade deadline. But after Victor Wembanyama was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a blood clot, San Antonio can shift its attention to the draft, where it will likely have two swings at the top selection: its own pick and the Hawks’, whose first-rounder the Spurs acquired in a deal that sent Dejounte Murray to Atlanta in 2022.

Between the two picks, the Spurs currently have a 7% chance at the top pick in the draft and a 31% chance at a top-four selection to put alongside their young core in a top-heavy draft.

More Than One Prize

The 2024 NBA draft has been the most underwhelming since perhaps the 2013 class—but scouts expected a weaker group. This year’s class is the opposite.

The grand prize in the 2025 NBA draft is Cooper Flagg, the 18-year-old Duke freshman who is the favorite to win the NCAA’s Wooden Award. Flagg is not only a blue-chip prospect who could change the trajectory of any team, but he’s also expected to be one of the best U.S. players in the near future—one that bodes well for the marketing prospects of any franchise.

But Flagg is far from the only star who stands out in the 2025 draft class. Rutgers guard Dylan Harper has solidified himself as the second-best prospect, while his teammate forward Ace Bailey, while polarizing, would have likely been the top pick in last year’s class. Other players who would’ve also challenged for a top slot in last year’s draft are Illinois guard Kasparas Jakučionis and Baylor wing V.J. Edgecombe.

The bevy of talent at the top makes tanking for a top pick even more enticing this year, even with the flattened lottery odds that began in 2019, which give an equal chance at the top pick for the three worst teams (14%). That’s because the worst team in the league is guaranteed at least a top-five pick—which could explain why the Wizards, who are three games worse than any other team, are trotting out a young roster.