A potential TV plan for Heat. And Pat Riley/Rich Paul, Dolphins, Marlins media news
A six-pack of media notes on a Monday:
▪ The 15 financially strapped FanDuel Sports networks — including two in Florida — hope to be able to remain on the air through the end of the NBA’s regular season before their electricity is turned off.
But the Heat and 12 other NBA teams very likely will need to find a new television home next season, unless Main Street Sports — the owner of the 15 networks — can miraculously and unexpectedly find a way to survive.
And that new home could end up being a streaming service launched by the NBA.
According to the website Puck, the NBA hopes to bundle a package of local rights to sell as soon as next season. The league has been talking with various streamers, including ESPN, Apple, Amazon, Google and DAZN.
Of that group of five media companies, DAZN reportedly has expressed interest in independently acquiring rights to those FanDuel NBA teams. But DAZN wants all of those teams, including the Heat, to take large hits in their rights fees.
Sports Business Journal reported last summer that the NBA planned to provide a centralized streaming service for teams by 2027-28. But the expected shuttering of the FanDuel networks has created urgency to potentially move that up a year. Thirteen teams — including the Heat — would need a broadcast/streaming carrier next season if FanDuel shutters; 20 teams would potentially need a home by 2027-28.
Even if the NBA takes over the Heat’s media rights, the team likely would be able to offer a package of games (simulcast or exclusive) on a local over-the-air station. WPLG-10, which is simulcasting some Heat games this season, would be a strong candidate for those games next season.
The NBA ultimately seems likely to follow a path similar to MLB, which is providing streaming distribution for the Marlins and several other teams beginning next month.
The Heat isn’t commenting because the NBA has asked teams not to discuss the matter publicly.
▪ Heat president Pat Riley was infamously upset when he was essentially forced to travel to Las Vegas to try to persuade LeBron James to re-sign with the Heat in 2014. Not only was James believed to have already decided to return to Cleveland before Riley even arrived in Nevada, but Riley reportedly was miffed because James and agent Rich Paul were watching a World Cup soccer match during that meeting.
That created the perception that the Heat wanted to avoid Paul’s clients, a theory that has been disputed in recent years.
And Paul, on his podcast, recently made clear his respect for Riley.
“There’s a competitive nature that you have to have within you night in and night out for Pat Riley,” Paul said. “Whether he’s a coach, front-office guy. Also, there’s an accountability. Can you sit in a film room, be called out and not take it personal and take it with you to tonight’s game and perform? Can you do that? Can you sacrifice? Chris Bosh could. He did it and he won.
“So when Pat is evaluating talent, he’s not just evaluating your skill set. He’s evaluating your capabilities to do all the things he knows it actually takes to win. That’s why so many guys when they get to Miami, you’re like ‘damn, that guy? That’s him?’ I always say if I have a guy in the draft, please take him Miami!”
Meanwhile, James and Riley shared a warm embrace Sunday when the Lakers unveiled a statue for Riley at Crypto.com Arena.
▪ Next season’s NFL opener will be on Wednesday, not Thursday, because the league must abide by a 1961 act of Congress that prohibits the NFL from competing with high school football beginning on the second Friday of September.
That means the Seahawks-hosted NBC opener will be on Wednesday, Sept. 9 or Thursday, Sept. 10, and a Rams-49ers game from Australia likely will be scheduled on the other night, likely on a streaming service.
In recent years, the NFL has begun its season with a Thursday night game hosted by the team that won the previous season’s Super Bowl, followed by an international game on Friday night.
▪ Former Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito, who was at the epicenter of the team’s Bullygate scandal more than a decade ago, was reflective in a fascinating interview on the Fish Tank Podcast with Seth Levit and former Dolphins receiver OJ McDuffie.
“It’s something I think about every day,” he said of allegations (most never proven) that were leveled against him by Jonathan Martin. “I was able to detach myself from the Google search.”
▪ Quick stuff Part 1: ESPN will replace Sunday Night Baseball (which moved to NBC and Peacock) with women’s sports programming — including WNBA and pro soccer (NWSL) games... Besides analyst Rod Allen (who was switched from TV to radio game broadcasts), Craig Minervini also took a significant workload hit among Marlins announcers this season. Minervini, who hosted most Marlins pre-game shows in recent years, will now split the package evenly with Craig Mish...
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith criticized James and others for not dressing more appropriately for Riley’s Lakers statue unveiling: “All that damn money LeBron and them making, you can’t dress better than that? I’m so happy Pat Riley brought that up…All this money y’all make, dressing like y’all shopping at Target or something.”
▪ Quick stuff part 2: ESPN on Monday hired Tennis Hall of Famer Andy Roddick to work as an analyst at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon... ESPN scheduled SMU at FSU as its Labor Day night college football game....
Former NFL receiver Nate Burleson — who co-hosts “CBS This Morning” and is an analyst in the network’s NFL studio — will replace Ernie Johnson as a studio host on early round NCAA Tournament games on CBS. Johnson, who’s cutting back his college basketball work, will host the Final Four.
Burleson is the front-runner to someday succeed James Brown as host of “The NFL Today.” Like Dolphins radio play-by-play man Jimmy Cefalo years before, Burleson is one of a select group of former NFL players who expanded beyond analyst work and took on television roles both in news and studio hosting.
This story was originally published February 23, 2026 at 1:40 PM.
