Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🙏 RIP John Brenkus. The beloved former host of Sports Science on Fox Sports and ESPN passed away after a lifelong battle with depression, according to a statement posted to his social media channels. Since Sports Science was canceled about a decade ago, Brenkus had transitioned to building entrepreneurship. He was building a sports streaming app called Brinx TV, which had partnerships with Marcellus Wiley and Champ Bailey.

🏀 One final “Thanks for watching us.” Ernie Johnson gave one last sign-off postgame from Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the final episode of Inside the NBA. It came after Kevin Harlan gave a tribute to his broadcast team and the production staff after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. After three decades, the NBA on TNT is no more, replaced by Prime Video and NBC this fall.

🔴 Scott Hanson is back. The NFL Red Zone host will be back this fall for his 17th season doing whiparound coverage each Sunday on NFL Network. Earlier this spring, Hanson reupped with NBC to host the Gold Zone on Peacock for next year’s Winter Olympics as well. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing this job, which is probably why Hanson has kept it this long.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Goodbye to the ‘NBA on TNT’

Kevin Harlan and Ernie Johnson went out the same way they have for years.

The two legendary broadcasters simply signed off with the name of their iconic network. Viewers’ eyes might have been a bit wet and their memories wracked after the countless monologues and picture rolls, but the announcers kept it simple in the end.

In doing so, Harlan and Johnson gave it up to their beloved predecessors. They were ending it for Craig Sager, for Marv Albert, for Chris Webber, for David Aldridge, for Cheryl Miller. Rather than parading all those former stars through the telecast on Saturday night, there was a simple stand-in: “the NBA on TNT.”

In on of the countless stories written about Around the Horn last month ahead of its finale, Pablo Torre offered a strong defense of that show continuing. Not because of it championed journalism or the fun format. Torre argued that ESPN should have kept ATH going because it was a brand. People know it.

It is harder than ever to break out. There are thousands of content options, and millions of voices fighting for attention. The NBA on TNT was one of those brands. An institution, even.

Those three words meant authority, fun, and chemistry. They meant the biggest games and the best talent. It was the place for casual NBA fans and diehards to come celebrate basketball.

The people who are tired of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal or who think Reggie Miller is a homer will say the NBA was the institution, not TNT. If that were the case, ESPN would have a much better track record of hiring for its coverage. Instead, the Worldwide Leader has, from afar, reinforced how special the NBA on TNT truly was.

So while there was some pomp and circumstance around the final broadcast on Saturday night, the product spoke for itself. The NBA on TNT made stars, built up the league, and delivered over and over and over.

🗣️ THE AWFUL ANNOUNCING PODCAST 🗣️

Mike Greenberg discusses his ESPN career

Mike Greenberg is one of the longest-running stars on ESPN. After cohosting one of the network’s biggest radio shows ever, he launched one of its most successful television properties. Then, he leveraged that into hosting roles on the NBA Finals, NFL Draft and NFL pregame.

Last week, Greenberg joined The Awful Announcing Podcast to discuss his career as well as recent news items like ESPN’s coverage of the Shedeur Sanders slide and the Pat McAfee era at the network.

Listen to this episode and a new interview each week on the AA YouTube channel or wherever you listen to podcasts.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Make sure you catch Kevin Harlan’s final sign-off on TNT after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals in Indianapolis.

Elly De La Cruz reminded everyone of how cool sports can be on Sunday when he paid tribute to his late sister after a big home run. Postgame, Terry Francona had the perfect words for his young star.

📈💰INDUSTRY INSIGHTS🧐

• Disney filed a restraining order against former distribution exec Justin Connolly, whom YouTube recently hired to be its new global head of sports. The Mouse is also seeking a preliminary injunction against Connolly’s move to their competitor, citing a “competitive disadvantage” given Connolly’s recent extension with Disney and four recently negotiated distribution deals with the online video platform.

• This one’s a first. The Ringer posted on X explicitly lobbying against a proposal in Illinois that would tax each wager placed with online sportsbooks. Presumably, this was done at the behest of FanDuel, with which Bill Simmons’ content company has a big sponsorship deal. Within a day and after significant pushback, The Ringer deleted the post. It begs a ton of questions about the companies’ deal, and whether the post is part of it.

• We knew Bill Belichick had a lot on his plate (to say the least), but it wasn’t until this week that Peyton Manning officially confirmed that the legendary coach would not return to the ManningCast next season. However, Belichick is expected to appear weekly on The Pat McAfee Show once again.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

A Dodgers-Yankees debate

This weekend marked the first games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees since last year’s World Series.

It was easily the biggest moment of 2025 for MLB, given the monster viewership for last year’s Fall Classic and the star power between the two teams. Very few games out of 182 have both the NL and AL MVP plus another handful of Hall of Famers on either side, between Paul Goldschmidt, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.

That led several MLB and sports media followers, including The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis, to criticize the league for its broadcast schedule for the series. All three games were nationally televised, split across Apple TV+, Fox and ESPN.

Given that Saturdays on Fox and Sunday nights on ESPN are well-watched weekly staples, the problem clearly was Apple.

All of this is happening atop a backdrop of a media rights battle and potential labor dispute for MLB. Many have traced back the league’s issues to undervaluing its own TV inventory in recent deals with Apple, Peacock, Roku and YouTube.

Now, the league is stuck with exclusive windows for big games on Friday nights and Sunday mornings on little-used streaming platforms. It’s risky for any sport to hide premium games on unpopular apps. That problem is exacerbated when it’s a World Series rematch.

However, from the standpoint of this newsletter: Send the negative energy in the right direction. When MLB signed on with Apple in 2022, the service had just inked big deals with Jon Stewart and Skydance Animation. It won the Best Picture Oscar for Coda, for which it won distribution rights out of Cannes. Ted Lasso was one of the biggest hits on television.

Since then, the service has never taken off. It doesn’t even rank on Nielsen’s Gauge, which tracks streaming service usage on televisions. The most recent reporting suggests AppleTV+ has just 45 million subscribers, in line with Peacock. Its deal with MLS has been almost universally criticized.

The problem with putting the anticipated first Yankees-Dodgers matchup of the season on Apple TV+ is with Apple, not MLB. Streaming is the future for sports. Apple is a deep-pocketed company that promised a big future for its service. Baseball followed the industry.

Apple pulled a bait and switch, treating its service as a boutique extension of its hardware sales. Six years in, the service is still finding its way.

That’s not baseball’s fault.