The Board of Governors voted 29-1 in approving the NBA's media rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon with the lone "no" coming from James Dolan of the New York Knicks, sources tell Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal. Dolan had sent a letter to his fellow Board of Governors arguing that the NBA was moving toward a model similar to the NFL where local TV revenue was deprioritized.
Some owners sided with Dolan that the NBA shouldn't point to rising valuations to ease concerns about losing local TV money and sponsorships with the implication being that selling their teams was their best financial recourse.
Sources, however, described the three-hour meeting as a "breeze" as they were also informed that the total value of the media rights package was at $77 billion over 11 years.