A new day will soon dawn for Inside the NBA as well as its co-hosts and their collaborators. Before losing the broadcast rights to the NBA, TNT struck a historic deal to license the beloved sports talk show out to ESPN. Plenty of fans expressed relief over the fact that the show would continue to air. However, there have still been concerns about what the show will look like once it premieres on its new network. Co-host Charles Barkley has been particularly vocal, and he just revealed one concern he’s talked over with Ernie Johnson.
When it comes to the formerly believed demise of Inside the NBA and its deliverance from cancellation, Charles Barkley hasn’t held back his thoughts. Barkley’s future with the show is set, though he has still expressed uncertainty in regard to what’s to come. The basketball hall of famer recently chatted with the Pardon My Take podcast and was asked about Inside’s next chapter. Barkley admitted that he doesn’t know how the show will be “different,” and he’s wondering what the time format will be like on Disney’s flagship sports hub:
Normally, the number one time on our show is after the game. You get like 45 minutes to shoot the shit. But me and Ernie [Johnson] have talked about it. Like, are we gonna get to do that? Are they gonna say we gotta go to the SportsCenter? First of all, it’s an honor to work for ESPN, because they’re the biggest sports network in the history of television. But like, when we have those 45 minutes and it’s like one o’clock in the morning, and we can just go crazy, it gets weird… But are they gonna say, ‘No guys, y’all got 15 minutes. We gotta go to SportsCenter.
Those who’ve watched Inside the NBA likely know that the show devotes a lot of time not just to highlights but to the discussions had by its quartet of panelists. “Sir Charles” has deep discussions with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, which make the show engaging. When Barkley said during the interview (which is on YouTube) that the telecasts can get “weird,” he was surely referring to the fact that shenanigans ensue during the late hours. Barkley and O’Neal specifically get wild while the cameras are still on.
In terms of the show’s timing moving forward, Charles Barkley isn’t the only person who’s expressed concerns. Sports media pundit Bill Simmons weighed in as well and emphatically declared that ESPN would ruin Inside due to its commercial-heavy programming style. Jimmy Pitaro, the network’s president, claimed that no changes would be made but, as of right now, Charles Barkley doesn’t seem totally convinced:
We don’t know. Because everybody can say right now, ‘We're gonna leave everything the same.’ But like, if the game ends, is SportsCenter gonna to say, ‘Y’all got 45 minutes to shoot the shit’ or ‘We need to go to SportsCenter in 15 or 20 minutes.’ It’s gonna be a learning curve.
These recent sentiments actually represent some of Charles Barkley’s tamer thoughts on the Inside the NBA cancellation/move saga. In 2024, when the show was facing the axe, Barkley said some truly wild things. During this same interview with Pardon My Take, he also chastised his employers at TNT and Warner Bros. Discovery for not keeping him and his colleagues abreast when the show’s fate seemed uncertain. Barkley has also been waiting for more details on his work schedule, which may be greater than what he’s used to.
I’ve personally been watching Inside the NBA for years now, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried about how the series will be handled by ESPN. At the very least, it’s comforting to know that Barkley and co. will still be together on air. Let’s just hope they still have plenty of time to chop it up on screen as they’ve been doing for years now.
