Charles Barkley has mostly been polite toward his bosses to start what could be the final season of Inside the NBA, but he couldn’t help himself before the Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the Dallas Mavericks on TNT.
As Ernie Johnson read off Barkley’s nightly promotional parlay bet as part of the show’s partnership with the FanDuel Sportsbook, the payout caught Barkley’s eye. The former NBA MVP couldn’t believe that his parlay, which added up to +453 odds on FanDuel, would pay just $22.65 on a $5 bet.
He was wrong.
To make matters worse, Barkley took a cheap shot at Inside‘s producers over the made-up snafu.
“Come on TNT, if y’all can’t afford some graphics, I’ll give Kenny (Smith) y’all’s paycheck,” Barkley cackled.
As the show went to commercial before Timberwolves-Mavericks, Smith pushed back.
“Enough,” Smith said.
Barkley not understanding the parlay payout is already becoming a recurring gag on Inside, but this time the Chuckster also added the sneaky diss toward his colleagues.
The face of the show spent the entire summer alternating between public TNT spokesperson and its most vocal opponent as Warner Bros. Discovery management bungled a new NBA broadcast deal.
That led Shaquille O’Neal to comment on Barkley “dissing everybody” in the opening episode in Boston.
Since Inside returned for the 2024-25 NBA season, Barkley has been more subdued.
Mostly, the Chuckster has made joking threats about how TNT can’t fire them, since they probably won’t work there for long.
Expect the shenanigans to continue as the NBA season rolls on and we get closer to the potential series finale of Inside.
[Inside the NBA on TNT]