There’s a lot of confusion surrounding how ESPN plans on using Charles Barkley and the Inside the NBA crew now that TNT has aired its last NBA game.
And the former Sixers star and NBA Hall of Famer is among those confused and annoyed by what could transpire next season.
Speaking on The Dan Patrick Show Monday, Barkley revealed he and his longtime Inside the NBA colleagues — Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal — will only appear on ESPN “one-third or half the time” during the NBA season.
On top of that, Barkley said TNT wants to do its own Inside the NBA show that would remain on the network, despite not being able to air highlights after losing its NBA TV rights to NBC and Amazon.
“They’re trying to do something stupid at TNT,” Barkley said, adding that whatever show airs would likely be competing head-to-head with an NBA game on another network.
“Anybody who likes basketball, they’re not gonna say, ‘Hey, you know what? Let me turn off an NBA game on Amazon, ESPN, or NBC to go watch these four dudes sit around and talk about nothing,’” Barkley said. “We taped a pilot doing stupid stuff and it was just stupid stuff. I wouldn’t want to go out like that.”
ESPN plans to turn to Barkley and Inside the NBA surrounding all of its ABC games after January 1. The network also plans to roll out the fan favorites on opening week, Christmas Day, and during the NBA playoffs. TNT will continue to produce the show.
That would mean Inside the NBA will be jumping days of the week during the regular season, from Thursday to Saturdays and some Sundays.
“I don’t think they know the exact schedule,” Barkley said. “If they start trying to work me too much between ESPN and TNT, I’m just going to walk on home.”
Outside of that, ESPN plans to stick with its in-house studio shows, NBA Countdown and NBA Today.
What remains unclear is whether ESPN will tinker with Inside the NBA’s format to match its commercial-heavy approach, or allow the show to keep its current cadence and rhythm, as the network did with the Pat McAfee Show.
“I think ESPN is going to [mess] up the show,” Bill Simmons, who co-hosted NBA Countdown from 2012 to 2014, said on his podcast Sunday. “Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is gonna be different, people are gonna be pissed and Barkley and those guys are gonna be pissed and I think it’s going to go badly.”
“You can never kill the Four Horseman,” O’Neal said Saturday night following the New York Knicks’ loss to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. “All that sadness about the old show? We’re coming with a brand new show, and we don’t care who in our way.”
