ESPN made it official this week that starting in the fall of 2025, Inside the NBA will air on its networks as its pregame, halftime and postgame studio show around marquee NBA events. It sounds like the surprising move came as a shock even to hosts Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley.
In the latest episode of their Steam Room podcast, the two longtime partners gave their reaction to the news that Disney will license the hit show to air on ESPN and ABC during marquee events during the NBA season as well as the playoffs starting next year.
“We’re going on a blind date, that’s what it’s going to be like,” Barkley said. “I have so much respect for all those guys at ESPN … because I never looked at us as competition. We’re all in the basketball business. We’re all in the basketball business. I want those guys to do well because if they do well, it makes basketball popular. I hope they hope that we’re successful, because it helps basketball become popular.”
However, both hosts stopped short of laying out a roadmap for the future. Neither Barkley nor Johnson appear to know the specific details of how the agreement will work beyond what has been announced and reported.
“For folks out there who are looking on the internet and looking at various posts on social … we don’t know exactly what shape this is going to take,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, but we are glad that we are [staying on the air].”
TNT Sports will continue to produce Inside the NBA from Atlanta, and the hosts will remain employees of Warner Bros. Discovery (provided Shaquille O’Neal comes to terms on a new contract). The foursome will reportedly host a separate show, Inside Sports, built around other TNT Sports game properties.
Beyond that, the length and structure of the agreement still needs to be sorted out. All we know, and all the crew seems to know, is that Inside the NBA will live on.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.