‘Inside the NBA’ Keeps Irreverence Intact in ESPN Debut

Any question that ESPN wasn’t going to let the Inside the NBA guys be themselves was answered in the first few minutes.

The show, which moved from TNT to ESPN when the network lost NBA rights to ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video, featured the familiar ensemble of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith. It kicked off with a bang Wednesday before an NBA doubleheader with the Cavaliers visiting the Knicks and the Spurs visiting the Mavericks. After Barkley said he was “nervous” about his first evening on the network, Johnson rolled a clip of the many times Barkley has said on different programs, including The Dan Patrick Show, that he wouldn’t let ESPN work him “like a dog” by making him go on a bunch of talk shows.

After the montage, Barkley said it was an “honor and a privilege” to be with ESPN. The crew then riffed on a spoof graphic that showed what Barkley’s schedule with the network would look like with a dozen appearances Thursday, including spots on Get Up, First Take, and American Cornhole League. Barkley quipped that he saw Smith on ESPN’s airwaves Wednesday, “Talk about kissing ass. Did it taste like chicken? Oh! Now we’re sponsored by Popeyes!” 

The authenticity continued into the basketball talk. While there’s been discussion that the NBA wants its partners’ studio programming to be nice and friendly when talking about current players, O’Neal looked straight into the camera and told Lakers big man Deandre Ayton that he needs to “step it up,” and gave a thumbs down in assessing his performance in the Lakers’ loss to the Warriors on Tuesday night.  

“I need you to do three things,” O’Neal said, knowing that the segment would get clipped and Ayton would see it. “You’ve got to rebound, you’ve got to block shots, and you’ve got to dominate. The pressure’s not on you. You’re playing with two great players [Luka Dončić and LeBron James; the latter was out Tuesday] that get doubled a lot. When they make the little bounce pass, catch it and throw it down. You’re not getting doubled, [when] you have a small guy guarding you in the post, you turn around and shoot a fadeaway, that’s not going to get it done.” 

Barkley said Ayton should have been “on fire” and hungry to get James’s shots with the 40-year-old star out of the game. 

Later in the program, Barkley made a joke about Kawhi Leonard “having two jobs,” an obvious allusion to the reports that the Clippers allegedly skirted the salary cap through a no-show endorsement gig with environmental fintech company Aspiration. 

Other questions about the show will be answered in due course, like how much time Inside the NBA will actually get in postgame, especially during the playoffs when many of the games air on ABC and the network has to hustle out of basketball coverage to local news (and the NBA coverage is expected to migrate to ESPN’s streaming app). Nevertheless, any concerns that the program would be watered down by its affiliation with ESPN have been quelled quickly.