Update 9/25: Turner Sports’ “Inside the NBA” on the final night of Charles Barkley’s NBA playing career in 2000. Barkley had begun appearing on TNT as a guest analyst during that season and officially joined the studio show for the following year. As of 2022, Barkley, Smith and Johnson have worked together on TNT for 22 consecutive years.
(Why was this posted? This writer was in Atlanta that day to profile “Inside the NBA” and had the opportunity to interview Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith in Turner’s Atlanta studios. That happened to be a rare night — possibly the only night since 2000 — in which the studio show consisted solely of Johnson and Smith as Barkley was absent due to a death in the family.
For more on that night, you can read the profile written on this site at the time here. Plus, the interviews with Smith (part 1, part 2) and Johnson. A return trip to Atlanta in May 2010 resulted in this interview with Barkley (part 1, part 2).
