SMW Q&A with Tim Kiely

Sports Media Watch had a chance to speak with veteran Turner Sports producer Tim Kiely last week.

Among the topics of conversation: what a typical day is like on Inside the NBA, what attracted Charles Barkley to Turner, and a look at one NBA star that Kiely thinks would make a good analyst.

SMW: So what’s a typical night on Inside the NBA like for you?

Kiely: In terms of when we get started, I’m usually in about Noon or 1. There’s a lot of conference calls with the guys that are doing the games, the remote people who are out doing whatever game we have that night. Just a lot of logistical stuff, leads us up to about 5 o’clock, where we have an actual rundown meeting. A production meeting. Ernie [Johnson] comes to that, none of the other guys do. It’s myself and Ernie and a group of production people, associate producers and directors and stuff like that.

And we just kind of talk in generalities about what we want to do that night. Some of it’s straight basketball, based on who’s playing, or what the latest news is, and then we start to look at some possibilities for fun with [Charles Barkley] or Kenny [Smith]. And that may be based on current events, or something they said last week, or something someone said about them. And obviously, we want to try to take advantage of that, and play up on that. Like last week, we did the goof on Marv Albert and Wayne Newton and 50 Cent, that’s the kind of thing, playing off what’s going on in the news, and see if we can make some use of it, usually for fun.

SMW: Inside the NBA has been so successful, especially since Charles came. Especially on a night like tonight, when Charles isn’t going to be here – and you’ve been here since well before Charles came –

Kiely: Yeah. I started in ’95. Kenny was first, after, he was sort of on a temporary tryout. He still wasn’t sure whether he was going to try to play again, but his career was basically over because he had bad knees. And he was great. He was great in the studio, and he had no pretensions, was totally unaffected by television, and where am I looking and what do I look like, and how much time do I have. And he just was himself. And it was fun.

And I think Charles saw that in the few years – because we started to have a lot of fun, we would bring guests in and do the kind of things that we do now, pull gags, and do fun stuff. And Charles was quoted when he signed with us, because he had some other offers, obviously, that he thought that we, quote, were having the most fun. And that was his whole thing, [imitating Charles] ‘it better be fun, boy, or I’m not doing it.’

That’s where it all came from. That’s the historical genesis of it.

SMW: Do you think Inside the NBA is bigger than any one person? Eventually, Charles and Kenny are going to be moving on. Do you think even after that happens, it will still be as humorous, as strong as it is today?

Kiely: I wouldn’t want to try to predict, because you never know who’s coming along. There’s people out there that are obviously very – like Shaq. I’ll be honest with you, a guy I’d love to have on, but he’s hard to pin down, is Iverson. He’s great. We’ve interviewed him, he’s funny, he gets along with everybody, he’s wild, kind of off the cuff. I mean, today, he spent the whole day crying, and practice – that whole press conference was just riffing, so that’s kind of what he does.

There’s other guys out there, but obviously, it’d be hard to duplicate it. It’s all chemistry. They like each other. I’ve been with a lot of talented people, bright guys, but they don’t get along. And suddenly, when, if you and I get along, I can needle you and you’ll just needle me back. I’ve been on sets where two guys needle each other and they walk off, and they say don’t ever put me on with that SOB again, that kind of thing. It’s hard to say. I just hope it goes as long as we can, like we’ve always said, we want to ride it as long as we’ll go. Worry about the next one when it comes.