Perhaps the greatest mystery in the current sports media ecosystem—beyond the Shohei Ohtani saga, of course—is the denouement of the NBA’s national media rights auction. The timing, of course, is fraught on a number of levels—league play is at an all-time high, as a new generation of international superstars (S.G.A., Wemby, Jokic, Ant-Man) come into their own; the league’s traditional partners are all operating in a complex post-ZIRP media environment; and live sports remain the last bastion of the linear ecosystem. Disney (ABC and ESPN), Comcast (NBC), and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT and TruTV) all want as many TV games as they can acquire. Sure, they know that their futures will be defined by streaming and free cash flow, but current cash flow optimization models rely on raking in as much money as humanly possible from live sports—the cable fees, advertising, etcetera—pronto.