The National Basketball Association is in its penultimate season of media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery, and various reports have affirmed that the league is looking to ink its next deal with broadcast, cable and digital components. The league, led by Commissioner Adam Silver, and its two existing rightsholders have the ability to enter an exclusive 45-day window negotiating period on March 9, 2024. There are other bidders interested as well, which reportedly include Amazon Prime Video, Apple and NBC Sports among others, and there seems to be a collective understanding of the burgeoning reach and growth potential of the Association.

Concurrent with these media rights deals is expansion, a topic that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was asked about during an interview with Eddie Johnson and Justin Termine on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Tuesday night. With the Oakland Athletics decision to move the franchise to Las Vegas, Nev., the market has been speculated as being a potential landing spot for an NBA team.

The Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA won their second-consecutive league championship over the summer, preceded by a Stanley Cup victory by the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. Although Silver divulged that players, former players and well-known wealthy people have expressed interest in having the franchise, he shared that there are no “inside candidates.” He is thrilled about the interest, but knows that in order to move forward, it is incumbent on the league to ink a new media rights deal.

“The reason we wanted to get those deals done, no secret, is we want to have a better understanding of what the economics would be going forward,” Adam Silver said. “So that to the extent, if you have 30 teams; if you’re dividing up your national or international television money by 30 teams, that’s one check that you’re writing the teams. If it’s by – let’s say we expand by two teams [to] 32 teams – that’s a different one.”

Silver recognizes the importance of media revenue and how it impacts the operations of the league and its member teams. At the conclusion of the season, the league will be receiving regional rights back from Diamond Sports Group, part of a term sheet within the cooperation agreement. Yet the regional sports network is facing motions to compel filed by both its parent company, Sinclair, along with Major League Baseball, which are set to be deliberated in a hearing on Dec. 15. While the future of the local rights remains unknown at the moment, Silver wants to have an idea of what the economics within the league would look like going forward before considering these plans.

“We’ll see what the timing is on those national television agreements,” Silver added. “You know, we don’t have to wait till the end of the second season to get those done, but once we do, we’ll turn back to expansion, or turn to expansion.”

The league is in the midst of its first In-Season Tournament, which concludes this week in Las Vegas, Nev. featuring a semifinals doubleheader Thursday night on ESPN and TNT, and the championship game on ABC on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. EST/5:30 p.m. PST. During group play – which took place on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the month of November – ESPN and TNT had various nationally-televised windows that averaged 1.5 million viewers, up 26% from the comparable window last season. Silver acknowledged that the tournament has been going well and seems to be resonating with fans, but he does not want to jump to any conclusions before its completion.

“I mean, when we first started this people said, ‘What are you going to be looking for to decide whether it’s something that you’ll think will be successful and you’ll want to move forward?,’” Silver reminisced. “And I said, ‘Most importantly, let’s look to the competitiveness of the players; the enthusiasm on the floor; the buy-in, and we’re getting that in spades.”

Termine asked Silver about expanding the NBA Draft to two days, something that the Commissioner confirmed that the league is working on with ESPN/ABC, the broadcast home of the event, along with the NBA Players Association. There remains interest in the players that are being drafted and Silver believes that both rounds deserve to be broadcast in prime time, but he wants to ensure things are worked out with partners and thinks they will get to that point. He went on to call the decision a “no-brainer” because of the interest and how it can guide more comprehensive coverage.

“There’s so much interest in these players,” Silver said. “The other advantage to moving the second round to a separate night just gives more time for the announcers like you guys – the media – to have a better understanding of who those players are. A little bit more time between picks to talk about who they are and why they make sense for those teams.”

There have been several star NBA players who have been selected in the second round of the event in recent years, including Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green. Various second-round prospects from this year’s draft, such as Toumani Camara and Andre Jackson Jr., have already made an impact on their respective teams. Rather than these selections being announced after midnight on the east coast, Silver postulates the value another day would bring to the sport.

“I’m hoping to get there actually for this season – for this June – and move the second round to its own night,” Silver said.

Cumulus Media has rebranded CBS Sports Radio 1430 to Indy’s Sports Ticket in Indianapolis.

The station currently airs the CBS Sports Radio lineup, except for the 6-9 PM timeslot, when it features The Rich Eisen Show from Westwood One. However, a job posting from the company reveals it is searching for an afternoon drive host. Additionally, the Cumulus station is the flagship home for the Butler Bulldogs men’s basketball broadcasts.

Earlier this year, OutKick host Dan Dakich teased a potential return to Indianapolis radio. A fan on X told the former 107.5 The Fan host that he wished Dakich was still on Indianapolis radio. In his response, Dakich said “That may be happening soon. I have another decision to make”.

The station remains one of three sports signals in the market. 93.5/107.5 The Fan is the dominant player in the Indiana capital, while FOX Sports 1260 airs the majority of the national FOX Sports Radio lineup.

As the MLB Winter Meetings come to a close from Nashville on Wednesday, many baseball fans are eagerly awaiting the news of where two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani will sign. When USA TODAY reporter Bob Nightengale reported that optimism within the Chicago Cubs organization about landing Ohtani had waned, and later added that the team is not willing to award him with a 10-year contract worth at least $500 million, the baseball world took notice. In fact, it led to a contentious exchange involving team president Jed Hoyer and Nightengale himself, according to Jesse Watters of ESPN.

“A little inside baseball,” Watters said during a guest appearance with ESPN 1000. “Jed spoke with reporters a few minutes ago. As he was walking towards the group, he runs into Bob Nightengale and there were some stern words exchanged. I don’t know what was said, but stern words exchanged.”

The reported tension between a baseball executive and a member of the media caught the attention of Mike Mulligan and David Haugh, both of whom formerly reported at the Chicago Tribune. Mulligan began the conversation by reflecting on the perception that Nightengale seems to have fostered within the Chicago sports marketplace.

“Do you know what I learned yesterday more than anything else – and this is fascinating?,” Mulligan said Wednesday morning on 670 The Score. “That if Bob Nightengale has a report about the White Sox, everybody’s like, ‘Oh gosh, Bob has never been wrong about the White Sox.’ That’s all it is; ‘He’s been told that by the man himself.’ Apparently a lot of people on Cubs Twitter [are] not so interested about what Bob has to say about the Cubs.”

The show presumed that Hoyer was evidently displeased about Nightengale disseminating information about Ohtani and attributing the Cubs organization therein. Haugh thought that he would channel Kenny Williams, former general manager of the White Sox who said that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf needed to stay out of the team’s business.

“He’s like, ‘Oh wait, we didn’t get that memo. Oh wait, we haven’t been told,’” Haugh said of Hoyer. “So if that is the case – if the Cubs are out on Ohtani – it was news to Jed Hoyer and it still could happen in terms of them being eliminated as a possibility. Maybe Ohtani’s people said that, but he did push back. It was reportedly a little testy exchange, and good for Jed Hoyer for at least keeping that slim possibility alive.”

Mulligan assumed that Haugh would be very disappointed, but he then remembered that Cubs fans do not seem to care what Nightengale thinks about their team. Even with this ostensible concordance though, Haugh clarified what he thinks about the longtime baseball reporter on the air.

“I do care what Bob Nightengale says; I do respect him as a reporter,” Haugh said. “He is a friend, and I was disappointed by his initial report that the Cubs are out on it, and I think it kind of forced me to [go], ‘Alright, let’s consider the offseason without Ohtani. Not the end of the world. IT can still be a good offseason,’ and you start to rationalize it.”