Charles Barkley now ‘looking forward to co-working’ with ESPN personalities

The TNT version of Inside The NBA came to an end after 35 years Saturday, but the show (and cast members Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith) will continue on ESPN’s airwaves next season. That’s under an unusual arrangement that will see the show still produced from TNT Sports’ Atlanta studios, though, and with many if not all of its current behind-the-scenes staffers involved.

Along those lines, comments from Inside The NBA talent on how they feel about the move to ESPN are significant. And it’s perhaps especially notable to see what frequent ESPN critic Charles Barkley has to say there. Here’s what Barkley said in his NBA on TNT signoff Saturday following the Indiana Pacers’ series-clinching win over the New York Knicks, starting with a look back at how he opted for TNT even after initially planning to join NBC and a tribute to all the people he’d worked with, but then pivoting to praising ESPN and talking about his excitement for the future (starting around 1:15):

Charles Barkley delivers his message on ‘Inside the NBA’ about the NBA on TNT coming to an end.

That’s followed by a “TNT” chant by the crowd.🏀📺🎙️❤️ #NBA pic.twitter.com/5ldCbG9feu

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 1, 2025

That praise included “To ESPN, it’s going to be an honor and a privilege to work for you guys, you are the No. 1 sports network in history. And I’m excited for it; you’ve got some tremendous talents over there, and I’m looking forward to co-working with those guys.”

It’s notable to see that considering some of Barkley’s recent criticisms of the network, its NBA coverage, and some of its personalities. Of course, Barkley had previously offered some positive remarks on ESPN as well. But it’s significant to see him again taking a positive tack in this signoff. His remarks did come after lines from O’Neal and Smith on eagerness to work at ESPN but also declarations that they were going to change that company’s NBA coverage (which both have said before as well), so that may be important context, but even so, it’s unusual to see Barkley being the more conciliatory one. And it’s especially interesting to see him say he’s “looking forward” to working with people at that company considering some of those past feuds.

Of course, it remains unclear just how much of that cross-company work there will be. Inside The NBA will still be produced by and originating from TNT Sports, and it hasn’t been established if (and if so, how much) ESPN talents will be incorporated into it. Some reasonably-nice comments here don’t necessarily mean that Barkley and, say, Kendrick Perkins will start being buddy-buddy on-air. And there have been previous discussions of how part of the appeal for these personalities to work on Inside The NBA is the lack of demands to appear on other studio programming, a far cry from what ESPN asks of most of its talent.

Thus, it seems at least somewhat unlikely the Inside The NBA figures will each regularly go through the Bristol car wash. Still, Barkley in particular has shown a willingness to do remote outside media appearances, particularly with Dan Patrick. It’s conceivable he might do some of those with an ESPN personality he likes. And that makes his “looking forward to co-working” comments important.

At any rate, it’s noteworthy to see Barkley offering at least some positivity towards ESPN in his TNT signoff. And that positivity, and discussions of “co-working,” stood out even more after the comments from Smith and O’Neal.