TNT NBA Thursday will be a little more interesting this week; studio analyst Charles Barkley will join Marv Albert in a two man booth for the Lakers/Kings game. The last time Barkley called a game for TNT was back in the 2001-02 season, when he, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson worked a Sixers/Hawks game from Atlanta.
Could this be an experiment for a future role for Barkley? Already, Joe Buck and Mark Jackson work their respective network’s pregame shows before heading to the booth to call games. Could Inside the NBA hit the road on a weekly basis so Barkley could call games with Marv Albert?
Probably not. Albert, Steve Kerr, and possibly Mike Fratello, already make up a strong number one team for the network. If Barkley were to either join them or team up with Albert for a new number one team, he would be spread too thin. And despite the witticisms and social commentary he is known for on the studio show, his actual analysis is very weak compared to that of Kerr, Fratello or Doug Collins. Still, it would give ratings a jolt (an increase of possibly anywhere from one to five percent) and give TNT NBA coverage the kind of newspaper publicity that the move of Tony Kornheiser to Monday Night Football gave ESPN.
Kerr will be back with Albert on January 11, and Barkley will be back in the studio.
