{"id":556404,"date":"2026-01-23T22:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556404\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T22:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:27:15","slug":"charles-barkley-complaining-to-espn-bosses-over-inside-the-nba-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556404\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley complaining to ESPN bosses over \u2018Inside the NBA\u2019 rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Barkley said he\u2019s \u201ccomplained\u201d to ESPN over scheduling of \u201cInside the NBA.\u201d <\/p>\n

During a Wednesday appearance on \u201cThe Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,\u201d<\/a> Barkley didn\u2019t mince words while discussing his move from TNT to the Worldwide Leader \u2014 after both companies agreed to distribute \u201cInside the NBA\u201d exclusively on ESPN and ABC for 11 years, starting with the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve complained, we\u2019ve only been on ESPN four times in three months,\u201d\u00a0Barkley said referring to co-hosts Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. \u201cI don\u2019t like that at all.<\/p>\n

\"CharlesCharles Barkley in attendance for the Phoenix Suns-Minnesota Timberwolves game during an NBA Cup game at Mortgage Matchup Center November 21, 2025. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I was talking about working all the time, because I love watching basketball \u2013 I\u2019m not going to do all these damn shows \u2026 I\u2019m not gonna be on ESPN One, Two, Three, Deportes, Nacho, Echo, whatever they call it. I\u2019m not gonna be doing all that. But I wish we had been on more during the first half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley added that\u00a0\u201cInside the NBA\u201d\u00a0is scheduled to air this Saturday (Jan. 24), next Wednesday (Jan. 28) and Saturday (Jan. 31).<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019re gonna start making up some of the days,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cBut we only worked one day in December, that was Christmas Day\u2026 I wish we had worked more. The guys at ESPN have been great but we will know more when we get schedule heavy the last half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley also joked that ESPN will have to pay him for the seven years left on his contract if they fire him for calling his coworkers \u201cidiots, punks, fools and jackasses.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 100 percent retired, but if I can do something just a little bit stupid so they have to fire me, they\u2019ll have to pay me for the whole seven years,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"(L-R)(L-R) Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Ernie Johnson, Jalen Rose, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley talk before the Knicks-Pacers Game 6 of the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals on May 31, 2025 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cInside the NBA\u201d\u00a0will appear on ESPN and ABC surrounding high-profile live events, including pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of the\u00a0NBA Finals\u00a0on ABC, conference finals and NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n

TNT Sports will continue to independently produce\u00a0\u201cInside the NBA\u201d\u00a0from its Atlanta-based studios over the term of the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley said he\u2019s \u201ccomplained\u201d to ESPN over scheduling of \u201cInside the NBA.\u201d During a Wednesday appearance on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2001,130,6,11,66,2086,3647],"class_list":{"0":"post-556404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charles-barkley","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-sports-entertainment","15":"tag-sports-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115946773197135624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556404","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=556404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}