The end of the 2024-2025 NBA season also brings an end to one of the most popular sports shows of all time: Inside the NBA. Warner Bros. lost the bidding war for the NBA media rights to ESPN, Amazon, and NBC earlier this year, and the popular analysis show that features Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith went with it. Fortunately, the Fab Four will continue the program for ESPN, but it will be under a different title.
Advertisement
Still, the end of the four legends’ run on TNT does bring up some emotions from its members. Barkley himself admitted as much in an interview he had with Dan Patrick.
“I was fine until Ernie started getting emotional, and then I started tearing up,” admitted Barkley. “But I’m glad that they only had the camera on him. Kenny and Shaq, they were just talking, but Ernie was emotional.” He has a right to be emotional, too. Chuck has been on Inside the NBA since 2000, and Ernie Johnson since 1990. The history of the show is unmatched.
So it’s kind of funny that when O’Neal was asked to give his thoughts about it, he was basically emotionless. That’s not to say that The Diesel doesn’t care about the show he’s been on since 2011. He just manages his feelings better due to his childhood.
“I realize nothing lasts forever and at some point change is inevitable. Growing up in a military family, I’m used to doing something every four years. I been at Turner for 12 years, I did three terms with Turner, now it’s time to do something else,” said the four-time NBA Champion during a recent interview with Yahoo Sports.
“I don’t really get emotional. I’m just thankful and blessed. It’s a challenge for us to build something new,” he added.
Not only is Shaq’s heart made of iron, but he publicly stated seconds later that he refuses to change his ways for ESPN. Nor should he. The core of what Inside the NBA revolves around three basketball legends and one beloved broadcaster dissecting basketball in the way they know how: entertainment. Sure, sometimes their jokes go too far into analysis, but that’s what fans of the series love.
“I know for a fact Charles ain’t changing, I’m not changing, and Ernie is not changing. So ESPN better get ready for all the jokes,” O’Neal said with vigor. ESPN better get ready. Those media rights deals don’t last forever. TNT might try and cook something else up in the meantime.
Chuck revealed that the crew recently taped a pilot for TNT
While Inside the NBA is done on TNT, that doesn’t mean that the fearsome foursome are done with the network. Charles Barkley revealed in that same interview with Dan Patrick that he, Shaq, Ernie, and Kenny recently taped a pilot for TNT.
In revealing this information, Chuck also detailed how, whatever ESPN program they are on, they won’t be working nearly as much as they did in the past.
“We’re not gonna be on ESPN as much as people think,” he somberly said. “We’re only probably gonna be working like half the time to one-third of the time. I think TNT wants to do something so we taped a pilot about a month ago, and it was the stupidest sh** ever.”
There’s one glaring issue with TNT’s new pilot. Since they lost the media rights deal, they won’t be able to showcase basketball highlights, something Barkley alludes to as a major problem.
“Number one, we won’t have basketball highlights. But also, we’re probably gonna be going up against an NBA game. And anybody who likes basketball, they ain’t gonna say, ‘Hey, you know what? Let me turn off a NBA game on Amazon, ESPN or NBC to go watch these four dudes sit around and talk about nothing.’ So it’s complicated.”
There’s no guarantee that either show will be as good as the original Inside the NBA, but that’s okay. Those four have nothing left to prove in terms of broadcasting, and more importantly, the NBA will still exist, with hundreds if not thousands of TV shows, broadcasts, podcasts, or interviews for them to do to weigh in on the game.
