Over the weekend, some exciting news broke regarding the future of Inside the NBA, as ESPN is adding the beloved studio show as part of a new licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery. The show will continue to be produced independently by TNT Sports from their Atlanta studio, with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, and Charles Barkley remaining employees of WBD — well, so long as they get Shaq’s contract done — but they’ll be part of ESPN and ABC’s coverage of the Playoffs, Finals, and major regular season games.
That was stunning news to many fans, largely because ESPN has been trying to figure out how to create a competitor to Inside for decades to no avail, and the fellas have never been afraid of making fun of ESPN — particularly Barkley. Chuck has taken ESPN and their analysts to tasks a number of times over the years, and while I doubt that stops in total, he knows times are changing soon for he and the rest of the fellas. On Tuesday night, after the Spurs beat the Thunder in the late game on TNT, Chuck couldn’t help but crack a joke to Kenny Smith that they’ve gotta “go back to kissing ass” ahead of their move to ESPN next fall.
No one has been more outspoken over the last six months about the contract negotiations with the NBA than Barkley, sometimes to the chagrin of his colleagues. He’s been extremely vocal about his frustrations with TNT not keeping NBA rights and has noted his biggest concern is trying to figure out how to keep everyone at TNT employed. That mission seems to have been accomplished with this latest news of the show being licensed to ESPN, and he showed still going to be Chuck and poke fun at the new arrangement.
