TNT NHL analyst Paul Bissonnette was hospitalized after being assaulted by six men at a restaurant, per local police. Plus: longtime ESPN NBA studio analyst Jalen Rose is joining “Inside the NBA” for a night; Charles Barkley is again going after his bosses at WBD.
TNT’s Bissonnette OK after assault
TNT NHL analyst Paul Bissonnette was hospitalized Sunday after being assaulted by several men during an altercation at a Scottsdale, Arizona, restaurant, local police told the Phoenix FOX affiliate.
Bissonnette said in a social media video posted Monday night that he attempted to intervene when upwards of seven “way too drunk” men began making a scene at the restaurant and that things “could have been a lot worse.” He will be on the air for TNT Wednesday and Friday of this week.
Former ESPN studio analyst Jalen Rose guesting on Inside the NBA
Longtime ESPN NBA studio analyst Jalen Rose will be a guest on TNT’s Inside the NBA Tuesday night, filling in for Kenny Smith. Rose, who was laid off by ESPN in the summer of 2023, has recently taken on a role as an NBC college basketball analyst.
During an ESPN tenure that ran 15 years, Rose was a stalwart member of the network’s “NBA Countdown” studio show, the one constant amidst almost annual turnover.
It is not clear whether his appearance is a one-off or a prelude to a broader role with TNT Sports, which is losing NBA rights after this season but will continue to produce its “Inside the NBA” studio show for ESPN/ABC starting next year.
Barkley chides WBD management for lack of communication, poor treatment
TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley said on the “Bettor Angle” podcast over the weekend that he found out about “Inside the NBA” moving to ESPN next season by hearing about it online, rather than from his bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery. Barkley: “TNT didn’t even have the courtesy to say ‘hey, we’re going to do the show [on ESPN].’ Basically, we got traded. If I was going to trade somebody I had respect for and appreciated, I’d at least give them a heads-up.”
Barkley was broadly critical of the current leadership at TNT Sports, saying that the past two mergers — AT&T’s acquisition of what was then known as Time Warner, and the subsequent spinoff of the company into a joint venture with Discovery — had resulted in leadership that does not “even treat people with dignity. Turner used to be the greatest place in the world to work, but we merged twice, and it seems like the more times we’ve merged, the worse we’ve been treated.”
