Ted Turner died Wednesday at 87.

Ted Turner died Wednesday at 87 at his Atlanta home, his family said in a statement. The cause was complications from Lewy body dementia, the same condition he disclosed publicly in 2018. He died, his children said, "peacefully and surrounded by family."

For the NBA, Turner's footprint is enormous. He owned the Atlanta Hawks for two decades, from 1977 to 2003, and built TNT into the network the league has called home for 36 consecutive years of playoff coverage — the longest single-broadcaster relationship in NBA history. "Inside the NBA" — Ernie, Charles, Kenny, Shaq — exists because Turner gave Atlanta-based TBS the basketball rights nobody else wanted in the 1970s. He also founded CNN, the first 24-hour news channel, and turned the Atlanta Braves into "America's Team" with the same superstation strategy.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement Wednesday calling Turner "a giant of American television and a transformational figure in sports media." With TNT's NBA rights expiring after this season as part of the league's new deal with NBC and Amazon, Turner's death lands almost exactly as the chapter he authored closes.