NBA fans were ecstatic over the weekend when news broke that TNT Sports would license its iconic studio show, Inside the NBA, to ESPN starting next season.

The news came in conjunction with reporting that TNT and the NBA had settled its legal dispute over the network’s purported matching rights. It seems like the best-case scenario for all parties. Inside the NBA will continue, and even get to work the NBA Finals for the first time. TNT receives ancillary concessions like highlight rights and some Big 12 football and basketball from ESPN. And the NBA gets to move forward with its desired media partners: ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.

However, there may be a few more details to sort out before that happens.

Bill Simmons—who, interestingly, was the first to break the story that the NBA and TNT would bury the hatchet and that ESPN could be in the running for Inside the NBA—joined Matthew Belloni’s podcast The Town. There, he suggested some hurdles have yet to be cleared regarding the show’s future.

The Ringer founder pointed out that previous reporting indicated that both Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith have clauses in their TNT contracts that allow them to leave should the network lose NBA rights.

“We know that Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley had things in their contract that if Warner lost the NBA, they become free agents or they get to renegotiate, right?” Simmons began. “You watch these guys license Inside the NBA to ESPN for 13 Big 12 football games and 12 Big 12 basketball games…So basically, this is a price of, ‘We’ll license it, and you will pay us this,’ which, they have not released the price because they don’t have deals with Barkley and Kenny yet.”

“Oh, you know that for a fact?” Belloni asked.

“It’s in all the reporting that those guys if they lose basketball, I know those guys get to redo their contracts or whatever. So they’ve been quiet, they’ve been good soldiers, but they still have to get f*cking paid,” Simmons explained.

It’s an interesting point that seemingly no one has brought up. There have already been reports that Shaquille O’Neal needs a new contract following this season, but none to suggest that Barkley and Smith will likely exercise the outs in their current contracts to negotiate a better deal with TNT.

It is unclear whether ESPN’s “payment” to TNT is solely through the sublicensing of Big 12 inventory or if there are additional financial considerations. Either way, if Barkley and Smith can still opt out of their current contracts, they’ll have significant leverage to negotiate a favorable deal.

As Simmons said, for now, they’re being “good soldiers,” and it’s unlikely they’d play hardball and threaten to leave the show. But it’s also reasonable to expect they’ll renegotiate their deals if they can. And especially considering TNT is now getting paid (in one form or another) for the show, the calculus for Barkley and Smith has likely shifted.

So, while it’s not time to panic about Inside the NBA’s future again, there are likely still some details to figure out before everyone’s favorite studio show makes its way onto ESPN.

[The Town]