Watching NBA hoops in 2025 is still an adventure. As a premium LeaguePass subscriber it’s still not possible to see every game live over the internet without resorting to pirated streams. Even the above-board options are fraught with issues. TNT’s app for AppleTV is a UI nightmare. It is impossible to turn off closed captions while watching a live game, ceding control of a huge chunk of screen space. People have been complaining about it on Reddit for years across multiple threads. One Redditor posted a solution that works for me and I’m sharing it here so that it can be documented somewhere on the internet besides a closed social media platform, and also so I can remember.

Basically, you start watching a non-live episode of something other than basketball. Once that show is playing, lightly swipe left on the AppleTV remote, which will bring up a set of controls for playback. From there you tap the up button to get to the little button that says “CC”. Clicking this will turn off the yellow highlight on the button and turn off the scourge of closed captions forever during NBA basketball. Hallelujah!