Everything still looks pretty ugly around Inside the NBA as TNT appears all but guaranteed to lose broadcast rights to the NBA after next season, and it appears Charles Barkley announcing his retirement only made the situation more messy. In a recent public appearance, Kenny Smith, the longest-tenured former athlete on Inside, revealed he has not heard from Barkley since the 1993 NBA MVP announced his retirement on air earlier this month — and wasn’t a big fan of how Barkley announced the news.
Smith spoke with the New York Post on Monday and said he’s still waiting for a call from his cohost.
“He never called me. He never told me,” Kenny Smith told Stefan Bondy of The Post at an event put on by Australia’s National Basketball League, which Smith works for. “He still hasn’t called me and told me, ‘Kenny, I’m retiring.'”
Smith was also bothered that Barkley did not thank or shout out any of his colleagues from Inside the NBA in his initial farewell message.
“I was just surprised he didn’t thank me, Ernie [Johnson] and Shaq [O’Neal],” Smith told The Post. “You’re going to retire and not thank us?”
These hard feelings make sense, but hopefully they can be addressed before TNT’s final season broadcasting the NBA next year. While many question whether Barkley will actually retire, it would be disappointing if the historic show’s likely final season is clouded by internal tensions or drama.
Barkley has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, but clearly at least one of his longtime cohosts did not take kindly to his sudden announcement.
