NBA on TNT lives to fight another day in Pacers-Knicks series

The greatest talk show in the NBA has one more night yet to keep entertaining us before they switch networks.

The Golden State Warriors have long since been laid dormant, their championship hopes laid to rest as soon as greatest guard alive Stephen Curry’s hamstring finally had an error message after a whole season of carrying the franchise.

Dub Nation is still blinking and putting together the pieces after eliminating the #2 seed and winning Game 1 on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves, before Curry’s injury effectively ruined any dreams the fan base had at winning a fifth title in the Unanimous era.

And as there are three teams left, none of who have made the NBA Finals since the Warriors began dominating the league back in 2015, I have to admit that there’s a clear symbol here that the Curry era doesn’t have the stranglehold on the league it used to. And that’s fine. Even Michael Jordan couldn’t win titles forever.

But at least I knew I could always tune into the NBA on TNT to get the latest hot basketball news from the most inflammatory commentators the game has seen. Charles Barkley. Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal have flanked the legendary Ernie Johnson for years, giving out spicy basketball commentary that framed the national narrative for night after night.

As they are close to wrapping up their NBA on TNT Coverage and moving to a new network in the future, it reminded me of the inevitability of change. So last night when Shaq went on a rant discussing the sadness of the program ending on the ntwork at the consummmation of the Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers, I really appreciated his bombastic approach to the show going on elsewhere.

Man. I love it. I can’t wait to see what the NBA cooks up next, they’ve been entertaining me and my family for my entire life.