Next year, the NBA will look a lot different. The new media rights deal kicks in for the league, and basketball will no longer be airing on TNT due to Warner Bros. not being able to match the money offered by ABC, ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime.
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What’s even weirder is that the popular Inside the NBA program, made famous by hosts Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson, will now be moving to ESPN, ending a historic television run on TNT. But that hasn’t stopped the show hosts from being loyal to their former network.
Shaq was recently spotted at the UFC Hall of Fame induction, where he did a quick interview with MMA Fighting. When the publication asked him how excited he was to be bringing Inside the NBA to ESPN, The Diesel shut the reporter down.
“I don’t work for ESPN. I work for TNT. Stop it,” the four-time NBA Champion said with a grin. The big man isn’t wrong. The show will run with the same exact crew and involve the same exact format. It will just be airing on ESPN rather than on Turner.
O’Neal could also be referring to the fact that he is still on the same contract he was under with TNT, which runs until about 2032. That said, if ESPN did have any problems with the program, they would have the authority to change it. Shaq probably wouldn’t like that, but the boss is the boss.
What ESPN needs to realize is that it’s hard to push around The Diesel. The same thing can be said about Chuck and Kenny. Ernie will be a team player, but only because he is used to having to wrangle the other three in. Regardless, Shaq doesn’t plan on changing; he’s said it before.
Shaq stood by the idea that he and Chuck would be doing their same schtick for ESPN
Since the news came out about Inside the NBA’s TNT run coming to an end, the fearsome foursome have done a ton of media on the subject.
Shaq, in particular, was pretty vocal about how he didn’t expect too many differences for the program’s big move to ESPN. He even told Rich Eisen during an interview back in June that his goal will always be to entertain.
Chuck’s not changing. I’m not changing,” he stated. “We’re gonna go, have fun, do what we do, talk about the game that we love and try to make people laugh.”
Give the crew this: They are funny. While a big critique of Inside the NBA has been that there hasn’t been as much analysis, the boys do lock in when the time is right. Sure, a lot of their predictions are far from accurate (Shaq in particular said the Knicks would get eliminated in the first round of this year’s postseason), they do tend to have noteworthy feedback for players who need to hear it.
And that’s all a good sports talk show should be, really. Four iconic names breaking down the best parts of the season and speaking about how certain players, teams, coaches, or moments will be remembered in the legacy of the league. If basketball is forever, then so is Inside the NBA.
