Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal continue to be asked about ESPN, and one feeling that keeps emerging about the new partnership is “concern.”
Barkley recently joined sports radio hosts Nick Cellini and Chris Dimino on 680 The Fan in Atlanta, where he was asked about Inside the NBA’s looming move to the Worldwide Leader next season. With Warner Bros. Discovery losing NBA rights for TNT, Barkley, O’Neal, Smith, and Ernie Johnson will continue their popular studio show through a licensing agreement with ESPN.
TNT Sports will produce the show in Atlanta, but it will air on ESPN and ABC. While ESPN won’t have any editorial control over Inside the NBA, everyone remains interested in seeing how this partnership plays out, particularly with the talent involved. Smith recently admitted he was “uncomfortable” with the move, O’Neal has also said he is “concerned” about going to ESPN, and Barkley is echoing the sentiment.
“We’re all concerned, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Barkley said on 680 The Fan. “Because we just don’t know. So, I wish I could give you a definite answer, but we made the move, and we’re gonna see. Like I said, it’s gonna be cool working for ESPN. ESPN’s the most famous network in the world for sports, and it’s gonna be an honor to work there.”
The licensing agreement with ESPN was announced last November. It’s one thing for Barkley, Shaq, and Smith to have concerns and discomfort about the move in the immediate weeks and months after it was announced, but this uneasiness has continued even after they’ve met with both TNT Sports and ESPN to discuss how the agreement will work. One concern remains the potential workload, even though Inside the NBA will air on ESPN and ABC significantly less frequently than it has on TNT.
Barkley said he’s willing to appear remotely on ESPN’s studio shows as he has in the past with Get Up and even First Take. But just because he does one show doesn’t mean he’s going to do all of them in a given day or week.
“They’ve been trying to get me my entire career,” Barkley said of ESPN. “But you know, I made a great decision going to Turner because it’s amazing.”
And despite Inside the NBA airing on ESPN, Barkley and crew will remain employees of TNT Sports. But it’s not the TNT Sports of old.
“Our company is not the same,” Barkley said of Turner. “We’ve had two mergers that basically just sucked. It sucked, plain and simple. We fired everybody the last two times, so our company has changed dramatically.”
Those changes have continued this week, with Warner Bros. Discovery splitting into two companies in a move that essentially leaves TNT Sports on a stranded island. While Barkley continues to seem discontent about the move to ESPN, he should at least take some solace in knowing Inside the NBA has the support of a more stable network.