Charles Barkley went from feeling invincible in his final year at TNT Sports to staring at a looming partnership with Mickey Mouse.
Inside the NBA is heading to ESPN next season and Barkley had a very unique way of acknowledging the surprising news Tuesday night. When the show came back on-air after the NBA on TNT’s San Antonio Spurs-Oklahoma City Thunder broadcast, Ernie Johnson noted the time was 11:57 p.m. ET, prompting Barkley to predict they should be able to stop working earlier than usual.
Charles Barkley jokes about the new developments with “Inside the NBA”
“Times have changed, Kenny. We gotta go back to kissing ass.” pic.twitter.com/nPuAFYDlfK
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 20, 2024
“Kenny, 12:30,” Barkley told Kenny Smith before remembering they might not be able to mail it in this season like he may have previously thought. “You know, times have changed, Kenny. We gotta go back to kissing ass.”
That’s because Barkley, Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson will have a new home next season on ESPN. With Warner Bros. Discovery losing NBA game rights for TNT after this season, it put the future of the best studio show in sports into question. But that question was answered this past weekend, when Disney reached an agreement to license Inside the NBA from TNT Sports, putting Barkley, Smith, O’Neal and Johnson on ESPN and ABC next season.
Barkley began the season believing they could test TNT’s limits with the future of Inside the NBA in doubt, frequently noting, “they can’t fire us.” One month later, Barkley now believes they have to “kiss ass” to their new bosses at ESPN.
Previously, Barkley seemed disinclined to join ESPN because he didn’t want to be paraded across their various shows and networks. But the licensing agreement seems like a best case scenario. It should keep the cast and crew together without adding to their workload.
And much like Pat McAfee kept control of his show since partnering with ESPN, WBD will still produce and retain full editorial control of Inside the NBA. Which means the show should be able to retain the same humor, hijinks and unfiltered analysis without going back to “kissing ass.”
