Charles Barkley still has one major unanswered concern about “Inside the NBA” and its upcoming move to ESPN.
In an appearance on the “Pardon My Take” podcast Monday, Barkley reiterated that he considers it an honor to be able to work for ESPN. However, he is unsure if the network will allow them to do the show the “Inside” crew is used to doing, particularly with regard to time constraints.
Barkley’s concern is that if certain games run long, they will only get a brief amount of time to do a postgame show before being forced to throw to “SportsCenter” or another program.
“We have questions,” Barkley admitted. “Normally, the No. 1 time on our show is after the game. We get 45 minutes to shoot the s–t. But me and Ernie (Johnson) have talked about it. Are we going to get to do that, or are they going to say, ‘We’ve got to go to SportsCenter?'”
“We have those 45 minutes and it’s 1 o’clock in the morning, and we can just go crazy. It gets weird. Are they going to say, ‘No guys, y’all got 15 minutes. We gotta go to SportsCenter.'”
Barkley has made it very clear that he has no interest in doing guest spots on other ESPN programs. He wants to do the show he and his fellow personalities have always been allowed to do without interference. It sounds like he has not received any clear assurances from ESPN yet about whether that will happen.
ESPN will take over airing “Inside the NBA” next season after TNT lost the rights to the NBA as part of the league’s new media deal. Whether that comes with significant changes to the format remains to be seen, but most, including Barkley, hope it doesn’t.
