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Shaq Agrees to Massive Contract With TNT Paying Him Over $15M Per Year: Report

The Hall of Fame center is staying with "Inside The NBA."

Alex Kirschenbaum

Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Shaquille O'Neal arrives on the red carpet before the Emirates NBA Cup semifinal game at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-Imagn Images
Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Shaquille O'Neal arrives on the red carpet before the Emirates NBA Cup semifinal game at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-Imagn Images / Candice Ward-Imagn Images

Hall of Fame former NBA center Shaquille O'Neal is staying with "Inside The NBA" for some major money.

Sources inform Michael McCarthy and Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports that the 15-time All-Star big man, who has been one of TNT's four main NBA talking heads since retiring in 2011, has reached a deal to stick around as "Inside The NBA" is licensed out to ESPN starting next year. O'Neal is set to earn $15 million annually to remain on the show, a tad below Hall of Fame former NBA power forward Charles Barkley's reported $21 million yearly salary.

Warner Bros., which owns TNT and TBS, failed to come to terms on a deal to retain its broadcast rights to the league, but the popularity of the Emmy-winning "Inside The NBA" is so pervasive that ESPN opted to bring it aboard. The NBA's broadcast rights will now be split between ESPN/ABC (owned by Disney), Amazon Prime, and NBC.

O'Neal may have had a shaky start as he joined the original core Thursday night triumvirate of Barkley, former point guard Kenny "The Jet" Smith, and Ernie Johnson, but he has since settled in nicely, and has developed an endearing chemistry with his colleagues. It's part of what makes the show such appointment viewing, and something that ESPN has failed to replicate on its own.

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Sources anticipate that Smith will re-up with TNT soon, while Johnson was never even expected to entertain the notion of a departure from TNT. Johnson has been with "Inside The NBA" since 1990.

During his playing career, O'Neal was also an athletic force on the hardwood, and a charismatic pitchman, rapper and even actor off it. A run in broadcasting made plenty of sense when he did ultimately hang up his Li-Ning sneakers for good.

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The Orlando Magic selected O'Neal with the No. 1 overall pick out of LSU in a loaded 1992 NBA Draft, ahead of eventual Hall of Famer and Miami Heat teammate Alonzo Mourning. After making one NBA Finals berth next to All-Star point guard Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway in 1995, O'Neal departed for the Los Angeles Lakers as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 1996.

He would go on to win three consecutive titles from 1999-2000 to 2001-02 alongside Hall of Fame shooting guard Kobe Bryant, and would take L.A. to a fourth NBA Finals in 2004. After relations between Bryant and O'Neal soured off the court, the Lakers eventually traded him to the Miami Heat in 2004 — he won his final championship two years later, with a new Hall of Fame shooting guard running mate, Dwyane Wade, claiming Finals MVP honors for the first time on an O'Neal team.

O'Neal would go on to play for the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. He possesses career averages of Across his 19 years in the league, the 7-foot-1 superstar boasts career regular season averages of 23.7 points on 58.2 percent field goal shooting and 52.7 percent free throw shooting, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 blocks a night.

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Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

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