The longtime Inside the NBA studio team is staying put for at least a few more years.
Turner Sports announced Wednesday that it has reached multi-year contract extensions with TNT NBA studio host Ernie Johnson and analysts Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. The extensions should keep the studio team together into the start of the NBA’s new television deal in 2016-17.
Johnson, Smith and Barkley have been working together on TNT since 2000, the longest active partnership on a sports studio show. ESPN’s Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso previously held that mark, having worked together on College Gameday from 1996 to 2014. O’Neal joined the team in 2011.
Barkley, it should be noted, had dropped several hints in recent years about leaving the show. In October, he said he was “leaning heavily” to leaving after his contract expired in 2016.
(Wed. news from Turner Sports)
