The 2025 NBA playoffs have been nothing short of a gift to the league’s incoming TV rights holders.

NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video executives must be swooning with every three-pointer that has dropped since the NBA conference semifinals began on May 5.

The games have been, for the most part, nail-biters – unpredictable, competitive matchups that appear to be sowing the seeds for a new wave of NBA superstars and team rivalries that should play out for years to come. And that is the most welcome news for NBCU, Amazon and Disney – the platforms that inked a massive $76 billion, 11-year TV rights deal with the NBA that kicks in later this year and runs through the 2035-36 frame.

Most of the league’s high-wattage, big city teams – notably the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks – were bounced out of the playoffs early on, or didn’t make the cut. Injuries took a toll this season on high-value players like LeBron James (Lakers), Steph Curry (Warriors) and Jayson Tatum (Celtics). That left a void at the top that has been eagerly filled by the league’s most promising underdog teams.

The New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers rushed their way to the Eastern Conference finals. In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves each bested recent NBA champions (Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors) to clinch their Western Conference slots.

The Pacers haven’t been in the NBA Finals since they were defeated by the Lakers in 2000. The Knicks were last there in 1999 when they fell to the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder made it to the finals once (in 2012) since the team relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008. The Timberwolves have never been there.

The semifinals have put the spotlight on the hot-shot players who have powered each team to bust through expectations. Players like Jalen Brunson of the Knicks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder (named the league’s regular season MVP), Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers and Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves have undoubtedly proved they are the next generation of NBA superstars, and the 2025 postseason has been their stage.

Ratings for the games have been strong, if not NFL-level spectacular. ESPN last week touted a 12% gain for its conference semifinals coverage overall compared to last year. Across 22 games, ESPN averaged 4.9 million viewers, making it the second-most watched playoff series since 2011.

TNT’s coverage of the jaw-dropping Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 21 delivered 6.6 million viewers, peaking at 8.5 million viewers. The Pacers rallied with minutes to go in the fourth quarter to beat the Knicks in overtime 138-135. After the Pacers also took Game 2, the Knicks turned the tables in Game 3 with a similar late fourth-quarter rally from a double-digit deficit that bowled over Indiana 106-100.

“This is another one of these games that just defies description,” Ernie Johnson Jr. of TNT’s “Inside the NBA” said May 25 after the Knicks’ Game 3 win.

The vibrancy of the 2025 playoffs has undoubtedly made it a particularly bittersweet final round for the executives and production teams who have managed NBA coverage for TNT for the past 35 seasons.

Johnson and his fellow “Inside the NBA” hosts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith have had no shortage of material to hash through in half-time and post-game segments. But NBA rights, along with the “Inside the NBA” franchise itself, will be gone from TNT when the 2025-26 NBA season begins in October.

The NBA’s move from cable stalwart TNT to streaming giant Amazon (for one significant rights package) is symbolic of the larger disruption across the larger pay TV ecosystem. TNT has an uphill climb ahead as it looks to fill a Shaq-sized hole in its schedule in just a few months. But for the next few weeks, all eyes are on the shot clock and the scoreboard as the NBA wraps up a memorable postseason.

(Pictured: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder)