Everyone’s worried ESPN is going to ruin Inside the NBA. But has anyone actually asked the people who make the show how they feel about that? Because here’s the thing: ESPN doesn’t have creative control. They’re just licensing Inside the NBA, the same way they license The Pat McAfee Show.
And if Pat McAfee is any indication, Inside the NBA will be just fine on ESPN’s airwaves. Jimmy Pitaro cared enough to keep the show going, but that doesn’t mean ESPN will mess with what makes Inside the NBA… well, Inside the NBA.
Sure, people have concerns. Shaquille O’Neal isn’t one of them.
“I don’t have concerns, because I know one guy that you’re never going to change (Charles Barkley),” O’Neal told Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show. “And I know another guy that’s really close to him. So, you know, the other two guys, Ernie [Johnson] is a consummate professional. He can adapt to any situation. Ernie is the guy that really keeps us out of trouble. And Kenny [Smith] is a professional. But, you know, Chuck is right there on the line, and I’m right below Chuck.
“Chuck’s not changing. I’m not changing. I actually saw something yesterday where it said ESPN’s going to give us the same no-look that they give Pat McAfee. So, listen, we’re just going to go have fun, do what we do, talk about the game that we love, and just try to make people laugh.”
Eisen, whose show is set to be part of ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer offering, told Shaq he’d been given similar assurances.
“And I would be stunned if any way, shape, or form, they try to change you, or your show,” Eisen said.
Shaq, for his part, said he would be, too.
“The four horsemen live on,” Shaq quipped.
Where else are you going to see a guy leave the set mid-show to go to the bathroom, live, on air? And thanks to Shaq, we all know it was No. 2. Also, thanks to Shaq, he serenaded us on Eisen’s show with the diarrhea song from everyone’s youth.
How could ESPN ever change that?
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.