With the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Donald Sterling disaster now safely in the rearview mirror, the next big league-wide priority for ascendant NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and league executives is scoring a monster new TV deal when the league’s current contract ends in 2015-16. With a highly-marketable group of young stars and at least two networks expected to be fighting to get in as a third rights holder, most analysts don’t believe that will be a problem.

The league’s current eight-year deal with Disney/ESPN and Time Warner/Turner is worth about $930 million per year. The NBA is reportedly already meeting with its incumbent broadcast partners with hopes of doubling the figures of their current deal, according to multiple media outlets.

The deal has wide-ranging implications for the league. LeBron James raised lots of eyebrows when he announced his prodigal return to Cleveland…and then promptly signed just a two-year deal. King James quickly reassured Ohioans that he has no intention of leaving after just two seasons, but wants to restructure his deal after the floodgates of new revenue come into the league with the new TV deals. Other stars, such as the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng, signed short-term deals as well.

Teams are also projecting big salary cap changes as a result of the incoming revenue. ESPN NBA analyst Zach Lowe reports some teams are expected the cap to rise to around $85 million after the new deal, a jump of more than $20 million from this year.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the league may look into airing the NBA Finals, which are currently broadcast on ABC exclusively, on Turner as well, though it remains to be seen how the Worldwide Leader might view such a move.

A number of analysts also believe a third-party network could make a play to join ESPN and Turner as rights holders for the booming league.

“The NBA is absolutely interested in getting a third partner in,” says Drew Garrison, an NBA writer and editor for the sports blog SBNation. While Fox Sports and NBC Sports have emerged as the two frontrunners, Garrison believes Fox will make whatever deal they need to in order to acquire a piece of the NBA pie.

“Their goal is to ultimately trump ESPN,” Garrison says of the nascent Fox Sports 1 network. “They’re light years away at this point but to get the NBA would be a big step for FS1, which really lacks that coverage right now.”

Garrison points to Fox’s hiring of Yahoo Sports ace NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski this spring is a sure indicant that the network is looking to add the NBA to its lineup, which now includes Major League Baseball, college basketball and football and UEFA and CONCACAF Champions League among other sports.

Fox executives were expectantly mum when reached for comment.

“None of our executives are going to discuss publicly what our intentions may be should NBA rights reach the open market,” said Lou D’Ermilio, senior VP of media relations for Fox Sports, in an email.

As for the worldwide leader, ESPN, the network offered only a statement that the NBA is a valued partner and the network hopes to continue the relationship for years to come.

Meanwhile, the NBA may decide to bring its digital rights in-house instead of licensing them back out again. The league licensed its digital rights to Turner as part of the 2008 deal and has seen large digital growth since on NBA.com and NBA TV. Earlier this spring, Sports Business Daily reported the league is exploring the possibility of re-obtaining some digital rights or forging new licensing agreements with outside digital entities such as YouTube.

The TV negotiations will be another proving ground for Silver, who showed his mettle and earned a lot of respect around the league for his handling of the Sterling situation. Garrison believes the league is in basically a can’t-lose situation, with multiple media entities in competition for their product, but still says the deal is crucial for the second-year commissioner.

“If you look at how quickly he’s being thrown in the water, this TV negotiation may be the biggest deal the NBA will make over the next 10 years,” says Garrison. “So this is another huge moment.”

Photo courtesy Chris Covatta/Getty Images.

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