The NBA on TNT is adding a new reporter this season, welcoming Bally Sports South commentator Lauren Jbara to its on-air rotation. Jbara formerly worked as a reporter and host for the Atlanta Hawks and is finishing her inaugural season with the Atlanta Braves. The University of Michigan graduate worked a variety of jobs in her early years immersing into sports media and now finds herself entering a national role with Warner Bros. Discovery that will also have her contribute to NBA TV.

Jbara will make her debut as a media day reporter in Sacramento, Calif. covering the Kings on Monday, Oct. 2, and will be featured on various TNT broadcasts over the course of the regular season. Announcing the new role on X, formerly known as Twitter, she expressed her gratitude for the opportunity and shared that she is excited to cover teams and divulge stories around the Association.

It remains unknown how Jbara’s new job will impact her work with the Braves, along with ACC football games for Bally Sports South. More details about her specific assignments will be revealed throughout the regular season. NBA TV will televise 23 live preseason games prior to tipoff, giving fans chances to preview young players, superstars with new teams and the adapting game plans of coaches ahead of the regular campaign.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s television media rights deal with the National Basketball Association expires following the 2024-25 season. Existing rights holders, which also includes The Walt Disney Company (ABC/ESPN), can enter an exclusive 45-day negotiating window with the league starting on March 9, 2024. If no deal is reached within that period, the rights will be taken to the open market.

There is now an official lobbying group that will advocate to lawmakers on behalf of streaming entities.

Front Office Sports reported Wednesday that the Streaming Innovation Alliance is a group consisting of entities like Max, Peacock, Paramount+, Netflix and Disney’s streaming platforms. It aims to work with various government agencies and elected officials on writing and passing streaming-friendly legislation.

“Video streaming services do not use public rights of way, airwaves, or spectrum, and are not subject to the kinds of regulation and taxation historically reserved for services to offset their use of those public goods,” the alliance said. “Streaming is something new and different, and should be governed by innovative, tailored approaches.”

While there are some big players involved in this alliance, heavy hitters like Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Roku are absent. It’s unclear whether those companies and their respective streaming services will join the alliance.

FOS indicated that while the forming of the alliance isn’t strictly tied to sports, many of the companies and entities involved have live sports on their platforms and that kind of programming can be an essential part of streaming offers.

Stephen A. Smith was very candid about his feelings on working with Max Kellerman on First Take in a recent interview on The Joe Budden Podcast, and Marcellus Wiley had an idea of why things ultimately didn’t work out between the two.

Stephen A. didn’t mince words when talking about how he needed to take the show in a different direction. Plus the working relationship between Smith and Kellerman had run its course.

“It was totally my fault and the reason it was my fault is because I didn’t like working with him,” he said. “It’s just that damn simple. I didn’t like it. I thought the show was stale. I thought that we had flatlined when it came to the public at large. I didn’t want to go from No. 1 to No. 2. when Skip (Bayless) left. I wasn’t having that. That shit wasn’t gonna happen.”

On his Never Shut Up daily show on Wednesday, Wiley said he thought Stephen A. was often outsmarted by Kellerman when trying to tackle issues bigger than just sports.

“He wanted Max first, because he was white. The show wanted Max to speak for white America,” Wiley said. “That would allow Stephen A. to get to speak for Black America. Now, here’s the problem. Stephen A. realized quickly that he was dealing with a whole different animal (in Kellerman), especially on Black issues, especially on societal issues. Because Max Kellerman is not only a historian, but the dude is a bona fide genius.”

Wiley thought that Max was perhaps too intelligent in some ways for Stephen A., and that Smith recognized it as a weakness in some way and had Max leave the show.

“It’s an insecurity for Stephen A. And that’s what happened,” he said. “This all started from a guy who was so intelligent, it brought back some of those insecurities from Stephen A.”

“Stephen A. felt threatened point plank,” he said. “Ain’t no way around it.”

Stephen A. did admit in that interview that he knew Max was a very smart person, but ultimately if he didn’t like working with him and he wasn’t proud of the product they were putting on the airwaves every day, something needed to change.

“I had mad respect for him from the standpoint of white dude, highly intelligent, Ivy League — educated from Columbia. Smart as a whip. Can talk his ass off,” Smith said. “Can talk about anything. I get all that. But you weren’t an athlete, and you weren’t a journalist. And the absence of the two components left people wondering, ‘Why should we listen to you?’”

“Max & I weren’t working in the end. I wanted to win. So I didn’t want that duo,” Smith wrote in a tweet after the interview. “Doesn’t mean he isn’t smart, talented and that he’s not a good guy. I have nothing against him. I wish him well. Just needed a change. That’s all.”