{"id":263765,"date":"2025-09-03T00:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T00:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/263765\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T00:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T00:53:09","slug":"charles-barkley-on-inside-the-nba-licensing-deal-tnt-just-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/263765\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley on &#8216;Inside the NBA&#8217; licensing deal: &#8216;TNT just sucks&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NBA season is fast approaching, but one of the sport\u2019s most beloved television programs is still in the dark about its new arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>After TNT lost NBA rights in the latest round of media negotiations last year, the network licensed the popular\u00a0Inside the NBA studio show to ESPN. Charles Barkley, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson will all make their debut on the Worldwide Leader next month as the NBA tips off its season.<\/p>\n<p>But with time of the essence, the\u00a0Inside guys still don\u2019t know how their show will be formatted under the ESPN umbrella. Traditionally, ESPN has foregone traditional postgame shows like that of\u00a0Inside the NBA, instead opting to use\u00a0SportsCenter as a vehicle for the network\u2019s postgame coverage. That will obviously change this season, but one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/charles-barkley-disconcerted-inside-nba-transition.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lingering questions<\/a> about\u00a0Inside\u2018s move to ESPN centers around just how long the show will air before the network resumes its regularly scheduled programming.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, ESPN\u2019s early schedule indicated that the first episode of\u00a0Inside the NBA to air on the network <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/first-inside-the-nba-30-minute-window.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was only being allotted 30 minutes<\/a>. The advance schedule is subject to change, but the news raised alarm bells for NBA fans who are accustomed to seeing Chuck, Shaq, and Co. chop it up for well over an hour after the conclusion of games.<\/p>\n<p>Now, appearing on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/charles-barkley-on-skinny-luka-the-eagles-lebron\/id1043699613?i=1000724644517\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Bill Simmons Podcast<\/a>, even Barkley is revealing just how little his own colleagues know about the future of the show\u2019s format.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cThey haven\u2019t told us how it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Charles Barkley voices his concerns for \u2018Inside the NBA\u2019 as the show heads to ESPN this season. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zFxWfOD48M\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/zFxWfOD48M<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Ringer (@ringer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ringer\/status\/1963014397858873746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason you guys had the best studio show of all time, other than the talent, was that you had these producers that actually let it breathe, that gave you like eight, nine minutes at halftime in a row to have a conversation,\u201d Simmons suggested. \u201cDo you feel like you\u2019re going to be able to do that at ESPN? And what happens if you can\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know,\u201d Barkley responded. \u201cThis has been one of the worst, TNT just sucks to be honest with you, Bill. They made this deal. They haven\u2019t told us when we\u2019re going to work. They haven\u2019t told us how it\u2019s going to work. Because, we\u2019ve been talking behind the scenes, like \u2026 after the game are we going to get anytime or are they gonna say, \u2018Hey, you guys got to go to\u00a0SportsCenter.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the best part of our show, after the game [where] we can, like, have conversation and have fun,\u201d Barkley continued. \u201cAre they gonna say, \u2018You guys got three minutes, five minutes, 15, 20, 30, 45?\u2019 Or are we going to go straight to\u00a0SportsCenter? They haven\u2019t given us an answer whatsoever. And TNT, I think they sold the show and they haven\u2019t been noncommunicable [sic] at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, there\u2019s some frustration brewing behind the scenes as the fate of\u00a0Inside is largely out of the crew\u2019s hands. While TNT will still produce the show and control its editorial direction, ESPN will ultimately decide when it will air and for how long, factors that can fundamentally change the show\u2019s typical feel.<\/p>\n<p>And with just over a month until the season starts, it seems like these details should get sorted out sooner rather than later, unless ESPN and TNT want Charles Barkley to continue flaming them in the media.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA season is fast approaching, but one of the sport\u2019s most beloved television programs is still in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,2161,2001,2002,6,6587],"class_list":{"0":"post-263765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bill-simmons","10":"tag-charles-barkley","11":"tag-inside-the-nba","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-the-bill-simmons-podcast"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115137636275801716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}