After weeks and weeks of speculation, the NBA has made it official: the association is heading to Amazon Prime starting in 2025.

That's right, after news broke that TNT was planning to match the Jeff Bezos-owned company's offer for the soon-to-be-expiring NBA rights, the official NBA Communications account on social media has made it official: starting in 2025, the association will be airing games on Prime through the 2036 season.

“The NBA today announced the renewal of its partnership with The Walt Disney Company and new agreements with NBCUniversal (NBCU) and Amazon under which ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video will telecast NBA games beginning with the 2025-26 season and running through the 2035-36 season,” NBA PR shared on social media.

While this news is stunning, it becomes all the more so when evaluating the official press release accompanying the social media post, with the association explicitly noting that TNT and its parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, did not match the offer presented by Prime, thus effectively ending the race for the media rights deal on the spot.

Former Bucks great Oscar Robertson, left, is interviewed on the TNT pregame show Wednesday by, starting with second from left, Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley
Š JR Radcliffe / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

2024-25 will mark the final season of Inside the NBA on TNT

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With the news of Amazon officially securing the rights to the NBA from 2025-36, the forthcoming 2024-25 season will officially mark the final season of Inside the NBA on TNT, marking the end of an era for Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson in the studio together.

Originally launched in 1989 and presented by Johnson since 1990, the show has been going strong for longer than most NBA players have been alive and has been incredibly successful for its blending of analysis and culture, winning 19 Sports Emmy Awards for excellence in television broadcasting. While only time will tell if the show will follow the NBA to Prime, Barkley has already announced that he will retire at the end of this current season, and Johnson has noted that he is under contract with TNT, not the NBA, which means the show could look vastly different if it continues on at all.

For better or worse, this landmark move marks the end of an era, but at least fans will get one final retirement tour to send off this current version of Inside the NBA in style.