Turner Sports parent WarnerMedia has resigned Shaquille O’Neal to a multi-year contract extension, keeping the popular broadcaster with the company’s stable of networks in a significantly expanded role.
O’Neal, with Turner since 2011, will remain a core part of the franchise TNT studio show devoted to the National Basketball Association, Inside The NBA. But the new contract term also calls for O’Neal to be more active across a series of other properties owned or managed by Warner Media, including being part of the CNN’s coverage of New Year’s Eve from Times Square in New York, developing new show on the business of basketball for NBA TV, serving as an executive producer for Turner Sports’ Bleacher Report, and executing on an overall development deal with WarnerMedia entertainment networks.
O’Neal’s popular podcast, “The Big Podcast With Shaq,” will additionally shift its distribution to the WarnerMedia Podcast Network beginning in early 2021.
“Shaq is so critical to our success, and such a huge part of the heart and soul of our coverage,” said Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports. “We are lucky to be able to have him as part of our family every single day, and I am personally so thrilled to see that continue for a long time to come.”
A reality series that aired earlier this year on TNT, Shaq Life, showing O’Neal as a businessman, father, DJ, and mixed-martial arts trainer, help open both sides to the broader possibilities for O’Neal across the entire WarnerMedia portfolio of assets.
Prior to joining Turner Sports, O’Neal played 19 years in the NBA, winning four league championships and making the NBA All-Star team 15 times en route to being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
“Shaquille’s tenacity as a player and loyal teammate made him one of the best to ever do it on the court, and those skills have translated to his contributions as a broadcaster,” said Tara August, Turner Sports senior vice president of talent services and special projects. “His fun, infectious personality is engaging, entertaining, and beloved by fans.”