As basketball fans await to learn the fate of the NBA on TNT, Bomani Jones cautions against assuming NBC could be an eventual landing spot for Charles Barkley
Warner Bros. Discovery might be fighting to save the NBA on TNT, but it sounds like the league is hellbent on moving its “B” package of games to NBC. If that happens, does NBC bring Inside the NBA to their network? Or does NBC reacquiring NBA game rights subsequently close the book on the most popular studio show in sports?
Jones and Domonique Foxworth discussed Barkley’s media future on the latest episode of The Right Time and seemed unsure about NBC being a good fit for the boisterous Basketball Hall of Famer.
“The question is, does Charles come to wherever it is?” Jones asked. “Because Charles is the engine that makes this thing go. Every broadcasting operation has a personality to it and NBC’s personality is the 100% opposite of Charles Barkley.
“TNT is on cable, for a channel that itself, I would argue doesn’t really have a brand/personality,” Jones said as he explained why Inside the NBA was given more leeway on TNT than sports studio shows on other networks. “What Inside the NBA became, and when it is really cash money is postgame in the playoffs, that’s when you get your money’s worth out of that show. At which point, it is a late-night show on cable television, which allows you to do a lot more. It allows them to be a lot more loosey-goosey or they can just decide they are going to ignore whatever the games were and talk about everything else. You can do that late night on cable television in a way that I don’t know if you can working for the Tiffany network.”
Jones used the example of Inside the NBA talking about George Floyd, posing the question of whether NBC would be willing to let Charles Barkley be a voice for their network on those social issues.
“People think it’s easier than it is just to port something over from one network to another one,” Jones said, “I am not sure how many people are willing to do what TNT did, which is to say, ‘We are going to let Charles Barkley steer the ship and we’re just gonna cross our fingers and hope that nobody notices some of the things that he says.’ You think he can get over on NBC or even on Amazon talking about them big women in San Antonio? We let that slide!”
Basketball fans have feared the end of Inside the NBA in recent weeks as rumors of NBC replacing TNT as a league TV partner are reported. While Ernie Johnson has reportedly said he doesn’t plan on leaving TNT, people such as Dan Patrick have assumed NBC would still bring Barkley to their network to recreate a version of Inside the NBA. But is a muted version of Inside the NBA what fans want?
“NBC was a great broadcast partner for the NBA in that era of the world and that era of broadcasting,” Jones added. “To me the personality of the NBA is much more of an outlaw-ish, sort of loosey-goosey, counter-cultural sort of thing, which is just the exact opposite of NBC.”
NBA fans have longed for the return of Roundball Rock and the NBA on NBC, largely because it reminds them of ‘90s basketball. But the return of the NBA on NBC will not resurrect Michael Jordan on the court or Bob Costas behind the mic and in studio. It might, however, end this version of Charles Barkley as an analyst that basketball fans love.
