Charles Barkley continues to make the rounds less than two months before “Inside the NBA” moves to ESPN, saying in his latest interview that he turned down NBC over the network’s planned workload.
TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley said on Bill Simmons’ eponymous podcast this week that he turned down an offer to join NBC over the network’s proposed workload, which he said would have included studio work twice a week — three times a week after the NFL season — and a set number of annual appearances on “Today,” “The Tonight Show” and NBC Sports properties such as the Olympics and Kentucky Derby.
“The boss at NBC hired me at Turner, I got a lot of love for Mark Lazarus. I said, you know what? I can work Monday and Tuesday, I’m good with that,” Barkley recounted. “But by the time I got the contract, they’re like, well once football is over, you’re going to work three days a week. That was my first red flag. And then when they put Kentucky Derby, U.S. Open, Olympics ’28 and ’30, I said hell no.”
According to Barkley, both he and Ernie Johnson spoke with NBC, which was willing to film its studio show in Atlanta and include any TNT staffers the pair wanted. There had not previously been any indication that Johnson spoke with another network. “They said, we’ll film this show in Atlanta, and you can bring anybody you want to. So that got me and Ernie’s attention. But then the thing with ESPN came up, and we’re like, well if we can stay the same and bring everybody with us, let’s take that deal.”
The ESPN deal is a licensing agreement under which “Inside the NBA” will remain produced by TNT Sports in Atlanta, with Barkley, Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal remaining TNT employees.
Barkley hit many of the same points with Simmons that he has been making for months, in particular that he still does not know the format “Inside the NBA” will take in its new ESPN era. “After the game, we can have conversation and have fun. Are they going to say, you guys got three minutes, five minutes, 15, 20, 30, 45, or are we going to go straight to SportsCenter?”
ESPN’s advance schedule still lists the first two editions of “Inside the NBA” for half-hour postgame windows on October 22 and 23. While those are placeholder windows and the entire advance schedule is subject to change, it should be noted that TNT’s “Inside” placeholders last season were generally an hour-long.
He also offered his harshest criticisms yet of his TNT bosses, telling Simmons that he “really grew to hate” the people he works for. “TNT just sucks to be honest with you, Bill.”
