The NBA enters its Prime

New times, new icons and more outlets than ever. What Prime Video brings to sports broadcasts is edging close to unbeatable. And its chosen favorite, the NBA – financially stronger than ever – already knows how to make the most of Amazon’s massive offering: the most distinctive tech, the most recognizable specialists and content designed to either draw you in or keep you addicted to the world’s most-watched league.

Amazon is no longer satisfied with dominating global business or breaking into the top tier of streaming platforms with one of the biggest libraries of series, movies and documentaries. Its newest goal is to become a central force in live sports coverage, delivering premium broadcasts while also handing viewers on-demand content to enjoy whenever they choose.

Outside Spain, Amazon has been proving for some time that its commitment to sports is far from superficial: NFL in the United States, Champions League and Premier League in several European countries, Roland Garros in France, Wimbledon in Germany, NHL in Canada, MLB in Japan during the Ohtani craze, and soccer in Mexico and Brazil. They know exactly where to focus their attention — and, crucially, where they’ll keep investing in the coming years.

Teaching its hand with the NBA

And beginning this season, Amazon has added the NBA (and WNBA) as the only competition for which it holds rights across the entire planet. Not exclusively, since the newest 11-year, $76 billion television deal is shared, but nearly $20 billion of that (around $1.8 billion per year) belongs to Amazon, giving it both the right and the responsibility to develop the product beyond North America.

For now, that applies only to the NBA. But based on ambition and an almost infinite budget, this looks like the first of many pieces still to come.

And one quick warning: don’t be surprised if Prime Video becomes the global aggregator of sports streaming — a growing necessity for fans today.

They’re already positioning themselves internationally, and in Spain they now allow viewers to link their NBA, NFL and Hypermotion League season passes directly inside the platform, along with third-party subscriptions like DAZN and HBO Max Sport. The promise is simple: everything in one place, your subscriptions synced, without hopping endlessly from one service to another.

Nowitzki, Griffin, Nash, Candace Parker, Wade… anyone else?

Their goal is to reach true excellence in sports broadcasting. That requires choosing the right on-air voices, the people whose presence will anchor the programming — the ones fans will remember years from now and think, “these personalities gave me so many great moments.”

And yes, they seem to be on the right path: Dirk Nowitzki, the international star who paved the way for today’s leaders like Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama; Steve Nash, the first non-American MVP (twice) and one of the great basketball minds both on and off the floor; and Candace Parker, arguably the most influential figure in WNBA history and the only player ever to win MVP as a rookie.

They also feature current and former NBA figures such as Dwyane Wade (championships with Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, 2008 Olympic gold medalist, Hall of Famer), Blake Griffin (a reference point for understanding today’s entertainment-driven NBA), Udonis Haslem (a locker-room leader), John Wall (an unforgettable point guard before an Achilles injury changed his trajectory), Stan Van Gundy (a staple of coaching and broadcasting), Swin Cash (from the court to the front office, with one of the most wide-ranging careers in the sport), iconic play-by-play voices like Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan, the fast-rising Michael Grady, and Taylor Rooks as lead host.

And to top off this basketball Dream Team, Amazon added the highly respected analyst Zach Lowe — who keeps his podcast at The Ringer — returning to the spotlight after departing ESPN.

Stars like Kevin Durant have already shown enthusiasm for the project. But the clearest indicator is the seemingly indirect collaboration with LeBron James through his podcast Mind the Game, co-hosted with Nash.

It’s technically produced by Wondery — Amazon’s ambitious studio that has shifted its strategy toward celebrity-driven projects to compete with Netflix and YouTube — but beyond standard podcast apps, Prime Video is the only place where fans can watch the full show.

Will “The King” join the expert team when he retires? Will he announce it on the podcast? Or in an exclusive Prime Video interview titled The Last Decision, echoing his 2010 ESPN special? Anything is possible. The reality is that no one else has gathered Luka Doncic, Durant and Stephen Curry as guests on a low-key basketball podcast. Other than James, naturally.

The NBA’s most luxurious and most modern home

All of them will work from the studios in Culver City, the California complex that has elevated filmmaking for nearly a century through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Now, with MGM owned by Amazon since 2022, these sound stages have been transformed into futuristic spaces offering Prime Video the highest-end tech to reshape a single studio into anything imaginable. One entire building is dedicated solely to NBA content.

Outfitted with every camera, LED screen and set element possible, they’ve created a two-story studio offering different setups depending on whether the content calls for post-game analysis, halftime discussion, deep-dive breakdowns, player conversations, nightly roundups, debates or top-tier interviews. They even hosted a major event attended by AS to showcase the plan firsthand. It’s an innovative, fully adaptable production hub, and they’re exploiting its strengths from day one.

That’s the grand centerpiece. In Spain, Amazon’s multi-platform strategy includes extended highlights, the usual 10-minute game recaps with Spanish-language commentary, selected mid-broadcast analysis segments, a monthly collaboration with Drafteados and new campaigns like La Casa Prime for the first Sunday afternoon game. The biggest investment is where the magic happens, but wherever Amazon reaches, its attention to the NBA is unmistakable.

“It sounds like they genuinely want to be there”

The early reception has been very strong, with far more positive comments than sports media typically receives. But the influential No Dunks podcast may have expressed it best. In an interview, creator Kofie Yeboah said that, to him, these new analysts truly sound like they want to be part of this project — deeply involved, personally invested and preparing every segment as professionally as possible. Something that doesn’t always happen.

AS attended the presentation Amazon organized at its Culver City studios to hear from several of the project’s headline personalities. And their responses lined up exactly with what No Dunks highlighted. Here are the testimonies from Nowitzki, Parker, Griffin and Haslem.

Testimony from Dirk Nowitzki

What the media needs: “I think we need to shine the game up a bit more and be more positive. There’s a lot of negative debate around the NBA, and we want to show that it’s a difficult job. It’s very hard to play in this league — you have to compete at the highest level every day. A lot of that criticism is unfair. It should be more than sitting there saying someone didn’t play well or someone else needs to play better. You can analyze the game more deeply, maybe say what they could try to improve or what they should work on. That’s what we want to do: we want to critique, but be positive, and also show how the game can improve.”

Technology: “We’re at the beginning of artificial intelligence, and this will develop step by step. But you’ll see how the floor lights up, how we can show strengths of players and teams, shooting spots, and UD [Udonis Haslem] will draw up plays to analyze. The variations we have in this studio are amazing, and more will come. Amazon is a tech company — they have every innovation possible and will keep innovating. They’ve already brought some of this to NFL Thursday Night Football. I’m excited to be part of something growing, doing things differently. We’ve never done this, so we’ll learn from mistakes and get better to give fans great moments — some fun, some less fun — and lots of on-court analysis.”

Improving broadcasts: “I hope we can share our stories and experiences. We’ve been in situations where, while watching a game, we know what a player is thinking in that moment — on a last shot, what I would do, what goes through your mind. I hope we can share what’s most interesting about how we think, what we did in those moments, whatever is most useful from our experience.”

On Luka Doncic winning MVP: “Oof, we’ll see… but yes, I hope so. I have high hopes for him.”

Testimony from Candace Parker

Globalizing the game: “It’s impossible not to see, given the recent MVPs, how much the world has influenced basketball in the United States. And I think the same will happen with broadcasts — we’ll reach a wider audience. I played overseas, and I understand the love people have for the game. It’s a privilege to communicate that to so many fans who can now turn on the TV and watch their favorite players against the best in the world. And we’ll talk about that. We’re going to represent this game well.”

What she missed as a player watching the media: “I’ve always been someone with a high basketball IQ. I want people with knowledge and data to support their opinions. The worst criticism is when it gets personal. My goal is never to go personal. Critique what someone did on the court — not who they are. On TV I want to give a different perspective, but one grounded in information and experience.”

Being a woman on air: “Many came before me, women I admire and who inspire me. I hope that when you turn on the TV, you hear my opinion, not ‘the opinion of a woman.’ Social media has shown why women belong in sports. Companies can’t claim we’re not valuable — the numbers are there. If you don’t invest, you’re losing. Growth comes from putting people in the best spotlight and letting them do what they do.”

Testimony from Blake Griffin

Celebrating the NBA: “Players know how hard this sport is and how much they care. Most of them dedicate everything to basketball and grow up loving it. So the most important thing is valuing these players, celebrating that we have them in this league and showing how hard it is to reach the NBA — and even harder to succeed. We need to distinguish fair criticism from unfair criticism. A bad shooting night is normal. It happens to everyone. Did you do other things well? Did you defend? Did you work as hard as possible? Then heavy criticism isn’t always necessary. There are many ways to do this, and we’ll have plenty of fun with each other too.”

Influence of Dirk, Pau, Marc, Ginóbili: “When I was young, people talked about European players and their skill. That’s only grown. It started with Dirk, then Pau and Marc and many more, and now every team has three or four Europeans. Some of the world’s best players are European or from outside the US. The NBA has done a great job expanding the game globally. And basketball itself is incredible — kids can now watch NBA games anywhere and grow their skills. Manu Ginóbili is a perfect example — he brought the euro-step, a move everyone uses now, even big men. Growing the sport across South America, Europe or Asia adds new styles and raises the game.”

Being an analyst before possibly coaching: “For me, this job helps soften the feeling of being far from the game I’ve loved all my life. It lets me stay connected. For JJ Redick, now coaching the Lakers, it was different — he still needed that competitive side. You don’t get that in media. He wanted to keep creating something. You never know, but I don’t see myself coaching. It’s much easier to give JJ a hard time now.”

Testimony from Udonis Haslem

His philosophy: “I love teaching basketball. I’ve been drawing plays, defensive schemes and more on the iPad. I’ve played for some of the best coaches ever — Billy Donovan just entered the Hall of Fame, Pat Riley is there, and Erik Spoelstra is now the Olympic coach. My experience is unmatched and I want to share it so any viewer, even someone who never played, can understand why a team ran a certain play and what they looked for. And I love this group — Candace, John Wall, Ian Eagle, Dwyane, Dirk, Blake, Rudy Gay, Stan Van Gundy… all brilliant basketball minds. I love learning too.”

Value of a player as analyst: “I have no favoritism — I say what I see. The difference between journalists and me is that I have all those years on the court. You have years in media, I have years in basketball. My goal is to translate that experience authentically. I also want to keep my relationships. I know many players well, but I still have to be honest if they don’t play well. There’s a way to do that without disrespecting anyone — being honest and constructive without throwing guys under the bus.”

On international dominance: “I love it. I love how the game is growing. I love the impact European players have. The fact that the latest MVPs have been Europeans shows the level of competition. American players see that and think, ‘OK, now we have to respond.’ The NBA is at its most competitive ever because of the international talent. And then you have the generational shift — young guys like Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trying to push past the older stars, while Steph and LeBron compete to stay elite. There are so many battles happening at once. The timing is perfect — this is the best moment.”

All of this — the talent, the tech, the ambition — revolves around a single goal: to produce the best NBA Finals broadcasts in history. That begins in 2026, then again in 2028, 2030, 2032, 2034 and 2036. The highest expectations for the highest ambition.

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