Report: Shaquille O'Neal agrees to long-term deal with TNT paying over $15 million per year

Shaquille O’Neal will be back at TNT Sports.

Per Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, O’Neal and TNT have agreed upon a long-term contract that will keep him on their network. The annual salary of that deal is reportedly a total of $15 million per year.

“BREAKING: Shaquille O’Neal has an agreement in place for an enormous long-term deal with TNT Sports that will pay him over $15 million a year, sources tell @FOS,” McCarthy tweeted on Friday.

This is ironic considering O’Neal joked about ‘Inside The NBA’ being fired just last night.

The news comes after the past year or so painting an unclear picture. TNT Sports previously lost its media rights deal with the NBA. That put the future of ‘Inside The NBA’, the Emmy Award-winning studio show headlined by O’Neal along with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith, in doubt beyond this season when that deal ends.

However, back in November, ESPN and ABC made a deal with Warner Brothers in order for them to license ‘Inside The NBA’ moving forward. ESPN has made other deals prior to this one with TNT, including broadcasting rights for the network to be able to broadcast college football and basketball games in the Big 12 as well as an agreement to sublicense games over the next five years in the College Football Playoff.

Since then, Barkley has said that he will remain with TNT throughout the remainder of his 10-year deal, which he signed three years ago, rather than retire or go to one of the new partners of the association in either NBC or Amazon. The same is currently the expectation in regards to Johnson and Smith too.

There had been no update on O’Neal, though, with the icon having been with the show and network since 2011. Part of that could have been he was the most profitable of the table, with a projected net worth of $500 million from his professional career, endorsements, and work in broadcasting.

Now, though, O’Neal will be back as well, except now airing on The Worldwide Leader next season, at a rate of another $15 million per year, which still puts him amongst the highest-paid analysts on sports television.