Charles Barkley says ESPN promised not to rush ‘Inside the NBA’ off-air: ‘We always go to 2 a.m.’

Inside the NBA on TNT had the benefit of time, and Charles Barkley now says they’re expecting ESPN to give them the same.

Barkley has spent much of the last year expressing concern about how Inside the NBA will fit on ESPN. As part of their licensing agreement, TNT Sports will maintain editorial control of the show and ESPN has insisted they won’t meddle, but Barkley has exuded more of a wait and see approach.

After months of criticizing the forced partnership, Barkley is starting to lessen his concerns after he and the rest of the Inside the NBA crew finally met with ESPN to discuss plans for the season. Speaking with Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com, Barkley echoed ESPN executive Burke Magnus by saying the network plans on giving Inside the NBA all the airtime it wants and needs.

“They said they’re not going to make us throw it to the local affiliates when we’re on ABC, and then they said, when we’re on ESPN, they’re not going to rush us off to go to SportsCenter,” Barkley told Bulpett. “Which is the only two things we were really concerned with.”

“We always go to 2 in the morning. They said they’re going to give us time,” Barkley continued. “I mean, we always do the same thing: we go from 7 to 2 in the morning. We have to do 45 minutes to an hour, which is the best time people love our show. But we were concerned they’re going to be like, no, you gotta go to SportsCenter or you’ve got to leave when we’re on ABC and go to the local affiliates. That’s the only two things we were concerned with.”

ESPN has insisted they want Inside the NBA to mirror what it was on TNT for decades. But that didn’t always seem possible. TNT had no other required programming to go to after Inside the NBA, which allowed them to air until 2 a.m. And some of the show’s best content often came in those early morning hours, when Barkley and Shaq start to worry even less about who might be watching. With ESPN, however, there was fair concern that they would cut the postgame short for SportsCenter or other required programming.

In August, a report stating ESPN was planning to allot just a 30-minute window for Inside the NBA postgame sparked more concern. But Magnus has since tempered those concerns by stating they want the show to have as much time as it did on TNT. And it sounds like Barkley is finally starting to buy in.