A few familiar names from the NBA on TNT are sticking around, in one form or another, for the network’s post-NBA future.
TNT Sports announced Wednesday that it has struck contract extensions with studio host Adam Lefkoe and basketball analyst Candace Parker, who along with Allie LaForce will take on new roles on the network’s new college sports packages.
TNT begins its run as a Big 12 and Big East broadcast partner this season, carrying men’s basketball games in both conferences, plus Big 12 football and Big East women’s basketball. Lefkoe will host the football and men’s basketball studio shows, Parker will serve as an analyst on basketball games, and LaForce will work the football sidelines — her return to college football after previously working the “SEC on CBS.”
All three were regulars on TNT’s NBA coverage, with Lefkoe and Parker in the Tuesday night studio and LaForce as the network’s lead sideline reporter.
Parker will continue covering the NBA for Amazon Prime Video, making her one of several TNT employees who will moonlight on other networks’ NBA coverage. TNT’s Grant Hill will serve as an NBA game analyst for NBC — and has already been assigned an Opening Night game — and the TNT studio team of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will continue doing “Inside the NBA,” but for ESPN.
It was of course the licensing agreement for “Inside the NBA” that allowed TNT to acquire its Big 12 package from ESPN, which includes 13 football and 15 men’s basketball games per season.
TNT announced Wednesday that its lead Big 12 football team will consist of play-by-play voice J.B. Long and analyst Mike Golic Jr., with LaForce or Coy Wire on the sidelines. The studio team will be the same one the network used on its Mountain West football coverage last season: Lefkoe, Champ Bailey, Takeo Spikes and Victor Cruz.
