It’ll be the end of an era in sports television when TNT’s NBA deal expires after the end of this season. A lot of efforts were made by fans and players alike in hopes that it would somehow keep the deal alive. But all the efforts have gone in vain. We have one more season left of Inside the NBA before it goes off the air.
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When the show goes off-air, the main cast doesn’t have a solid backup plan in place for the next season. During his appearance on The Jim Jackson Show, Charles Barkley detailed the current situation and talked about the future of the Inside show.
Sir Charles admitted that he has no idea what his co-hosts, especially Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, would do after the show.
Barkley said that he has been a part of the show for almost 25 years and he takes his job very seriously. He reiterated that doesn’t have any intentions to join another network at 61 years of age. That’s exactly why he has decided to retire after this year.
But he’s concerned about the situation with his work buddies.
He said, “Number one, Ernie [Johnson] would never go. Ernie’s not going anywhere. And I don’t know what Kenny and Shaq want to do, we have a whole year to make a decision. Everybody is an independent contractor and I know ESPN and NBC and Amazon would love to have some combination. But I just don’t know what the future holds.”
In the last few months, there have been talks about the TNT crew staying on the network and taking up other sports as well. But it seems like that plan has taken a backseat for now. With the new season coming up, it’ll be even more difficult for the team to figure out what they want to do after the 2024-25 season due to their busy schedule.
However, Barkley made it clear that they all have an important decision to make, which is, whether the band will be broken or not. As for TNT, they have lost different tiers of the NBA media rights to Amazon, NBC, and ESPN.
Amazon will pay $1.8 billion annually to stream NBA games on Amazon Prime. NBCUniversal and Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN have been selected as the television outlets for the NBA.
