Charles Barkley and the Inside the NBA crew are officially heading to ESPN next season, but that doesnt mean theyre totally off TNTs airwaves.
Even though TNT lost the NBA rights, theyve licensed the show to ESPN, and it sounds like they still want to keep some version of it alive on their end.
Barkley opened up a little on The Dan Patrick Show on Monday.
He still doesnt seem totally sure whats coming next, but he made one thing very clear: not everything happening behind the scenes is making sense to him.
TNT is trying to do something stupid behind the scenes, Barkley told Patrick. We taped a pilot about a month ago and it was the stupidest s Ive ever seen in my life. Cause were not gonna be on ESPN as much as people think were only probably gonna be working for ESPN like half the time to one-third of the time. So I think TNT wants to do something, and we taped a pilot about a month ago and it was the stupidest s ever.
When Patrick asked for clarification are both ESPN and TNT going to have versions of Inside the NBA next season?
Barkley said yes, thats the idea. But theres one big problem with TNTs version: they dont have the rights to show NBA highlights anymore.
But theyre trying to do something stupid at TNT. Which is a stupid idea for a couple reasons. Number one, we wont have basketball highlights. But also, were probably gonna be going up against an NBA game. And anybody who likes basketball, they aint gonna say, Hey, you know what? Let me turn off a NBA game on Amazon, ESPN or NBC to go watch these four dudes sit around and talk about nothing. So its complicated. We taped a pilot doing stupid stuff and it was just stupid stuff. I wouldnt want to go out like that.
To their credit, Barkley said TNT knew the pilot was bad going in and he respects them for admitting it.
Though it looks as though the network wants to find a way to keep Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaq on the payroll, even beyond what ESPNs paying to license Inside the NBA for their own broadcasts on ESPN and ABC.
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