Speculation has mounted that ESPN would change the DNA of Inside the NBA once it’s licensed there next season. Sources tell FOS the network has no plans to mess with what works. Here’s what we know about ESPN’s plans for the legendary show.
The final episode of Inside the NBA barely finished airing on TNT Sports before doomsayers like Bill Simmons were predicting ESPN will ruin the show. But I’m hearing from sources that ESPN has zero plans to change the iconic show’s DNA. No, you’re not going to see Charles Barkley riding a Booger-mobile on the sidelines. Or Shaquille O’Neal & Co. wearing canary-yellow vests emblazoned with the ABC logo. TNT will retain full editorial control. So expect to see the same funny, bombastic, basketball show that’s earned 21 Sports Emmy Awards during its historic run.
As with the outspoken Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee, ESPN management will take a hands-off approach with Barkley, O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson.
As one source told me: “Some of the speculation’s just nuts. ESPN has wanted Barkley and this show for 20 years. Now that they’ve got it, why would they change it?”
Starting with the 2025–26 season, TNT will license the show to ESPN in exchange for a package of Big 12 college football and basketball games. Once this year’s Pacers-Thunder Finals conclude, the brain trust in Bristol will gather to discuss their strategy for the 36-year-old program. Here’s what we’re hearing:
There will be an extensive postgame show, say sources. ESPN’s goal is to let the postgame segment run as long as it does now on TNT. As Bomani Jones noted on his eponymous show: “ESPN historically has not done postgame shows. If you’re not gonna do the Inside the NBA postgame show, you’re getting rid of the best part. It doesn’t seem like it will be a gratifying experience. But they also can’t put that on ABC. That would be preposterous.”
Inside the NBA will lead ESPN’s pregame and halftime programming. The show will air live during ABC/ESPN’s biggest events, including the NBA Finals, conference finals, and NBA playoffs. They’ll also be featured on opening week, Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1, and the final week of the season. ESPN’s own NBA Countdown will survive, but it will be strictly second-string. Simmons did say that ESPN might “fuck the show up” by forcing Inside the NBA to do the “short, terrible” pregame/haltime segments that are a staple of Countdown. “Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is going to be different and people are going to be pissed,” warned Simmons. “And Barkley and those guys are going to be pissed. And I think it’s going to go badly.”
The cast is expected to stay together. With O’Neal signing a long-term extension paying him more than $15 million a year, the Beatles of Basketball TV are all under contract. All four will remain TNT employees, but they’re all expected to report for duty when the show is licensed to ESPN. The show will continue to be produced in the same Atlanta studio with the same behind-the-scenes crew. The only difference is that the set will bear ESPN branding rather than the TNT logo.
On Monday, Barkley told Dan Patrick that he expects to only work two seasons of the seven years left on his monster,10-year, $210 million contract. “If they start trying to work me too much between ESPN and TNT, I’m just going to walk on home,” he said. Barkley is Barkley. He’s been talking about retirement for 10 years. But what do you know? The Round Mound of Rebound is suddenly speaking more positively about ESPN—a frequent target of his barbs—than ever before: “ESPN is the most famous sports brand ever. It’s going to be awesome working for them,” he told Patrick.
The devil is in the details when it comes to scheduling. ESPN will have to juggle its various shows and linear/digital media platforms to give Inside the NBA the high profile it deserves. For instance, if a featured NBA game is on ESPN, then postgame coverage probably just rolls over into Inside the NBA. But if the game airs on ABC, the broadcast network will likely shift into local news. So viewers will probably have to change channels to ESPN or ESPN2 to watch the Chuckster.
There’s also the question of how the show will coexist alongside Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter. Will Inside the NBA air on ESPN2 alongside Van Pelt’s SC on ESPN’s primary channel? Or will it start on ESPN, then shift to ESPN2 once Van Pelt goes on-air? That will be discussed after the Finals. My guess is ESPN will try to keep everything on the same channel. Thankfully, ESPN boasts more platforms than any other sports media company. The network is used to juggling properties between platforms.
Barkley broke some news on Patrick’s show Monday. He revealed TNT is working on what sounds like a general-interest sports show with some cast members from Inside the NBA. The network taped a pilot a month ago. But Barkley called it the “stupidest shit ever.” He doesn’t give the idea much of a chance since it would have to compete with live NBA games, said Barkley. “I’ll give TNT credit. They did say it was an awful pilot.”
ESPN declined to comment, referring to a statement last November when it acquired the rights to Inside the NBA.
“We have long-admired the immensely talented team and are thrilled to add their chemistry and knowledge to our robust set of NBA studio offerings to super-serve NBA fans like never before,” stated ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro on Nov. 18. Added TNT Sports chairman and CEO Luis Silberwasser in a statement: “We are thrilled to continue to produce Inside the NBA for ESPN and ABC, ensuring fans are able to keep enjoying the magic of this show during the NBA season.”
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History shows that several ingredients lead to a highly rated NBA Finals: big-market teams, marketable superstar players, and a competitive series. Unfortunately, the 2025 NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder don’t appear to have any of those ingredients, even with league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the fold.
Indiana and Oklahoma City are two of the smallest U.S. television markets in the NBA, according to Nielsen. Indianapolis is the 25th-largest market in the country and 23rd of 29 NBA teams (excluding Toronto), while Oklahoma City is 47th in the U.S. and third to last in the league, only ahead of New Orleans and Memphis.
Series between two relatively small markets tend to draw lower ratings. Since 2000, the two lowest-rated championship series, excluding those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, were in 2003 between the Spurs and New Jersey Nets (9.86 million) and in 2007 between the Spurs and Cavaliers (9.29 million).
San Antonio is the No. 31 market in the country and Cleveland is No. 19. New Jersey isn’t listed, though they get a bite from big markets in New York (No. 1) and Philadelphia (No. 5). There is a reason, however, that the franchise moved to Brooklyn in 2012.
The Thunder and Pacers have both been in the Finals this century, and drew strong ratings, but it helped that their opponents played in large or medium markets that had the league’s biggest names. Indiana faced the Lakers (No. 2 market) with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 (17.4 million), while the Thunder faced the Heat (No. 18 market) led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in 2012 (16.9 million). Oklahoma City also had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden at the time.
Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t have the same viewership pull as those stars, as evidenced by the 5.59 million viewership average of the Thunder’s five-game Western Conference finals series against the Timberwolves, down 17% from last year. The games were also mostly blowouts, as four of five were decided by at least 15 points and three by more than 25 points.
The series isn’t expected to be a long one, either. The best odds for an exact series score prediction are for Oklahoma City to win in five games (+225), followed by a Thunder sweep (+290).
Indiana, however, has defied the odds for most of its playoff run, winning consecutive series in which it was not favored and didn’t have home court advantage. The team could make it a series like in 2000, when the Lakers were -800 favorites but the Pacers still stretched the series to six games.
If Indiana can steal one game in Oklahoma City, this series could become significantly more compelling. But based on historical data, the NBA should expect a viewership dip for the 2025 NBA Finals.
Jackie Redmond on Absurd Travel Between NHL Playoffs, WWE
WWE
Jackie Redmond is living her life a quarter-mile at a time. She has had a particularly grueling stretch as an interviewer on TNT Sports’s top NHL broadcast team and WWE Raw and premium live events. She spoke to FOS about the wildest part of criss-crossing the continent, how she prepares for the dual roles, and CM Punk tormenting her for being a Maple Leafs fan.
Front Office Sports: You’re in the middle of this grueling stretch with the NHL playoffs. What’s been the craziest travel turnaround in recent months as you’ve had these two jobs together?
Jackie Redmond: I thought about this the other day. It’s so funny—I travel so much and have so many crazy things happen that I almost go blank when people ask me this sometimes.
But I think right now, the craziest stretch I’ve had since the playoffs started was in the first round. I did Game 4 of Oilers-Kings in Edmonton, Alberta. I took a red-eye to Raw in Kansas City. Then I took a red-eye again to get to Los Angeles for Tuesday’s Game 5. Then Wednesday, I took the first flight out to get from L.A. to Ottawa.
For those who don’t know, that’s cross-continent and there’s no direct flights, so I had to connect through Toronto. I left at 6 a.m. and got to my hotel at 8 p.m. Then I did Game 6 of Leafs-Senators on Friday.
That was one of the craziest stretches of this playoff run for sure. There was no breathing room. It was Game day → Raw → Game day → Massive travel day → Elimination game.
FOS: Was there ever any time when travel delays or snafus made you think you might be at risk of missing a scheduled event?
JR: I’ve had a lot of them, but it’s never caused me to miss anything. I’m kind of racking my brain because I had one recently, and it might’ve also been in the first round of the playoffs, where my flight got canceled or delayed and I had to stay overnight somewhere. But I found a flight out the next morning.
I was in the air getting text messages from WWE producers about a shoot I needed to be at like three hours from then. I was like, “I’m in the sky! But I’m gonna make it!” I think it was an interview with the New Day. They were really great about it, because they could’ve just had someone else do it, but they were like, “We’ll wait for Jackie.”
I know this happened in the last couple months, but I can’t remember where I was coming from or going to. It all just becomes a blur, to be honest.
To read more about balancing NHL and WWE travel, the futility of Redmond’s beloved Maple Leafs, and what’s gotten her to break character during a WWE interview,read Ryan Glasspiegel’s full story here.
Around the Dial
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Play-by-play announcer Mike Breen is set to call his record-extending 20th NBA Finals on ABC. Starting Thursday night, Breen will team up with Doris Burke, Richard Jefferson, and sideline reporter Lisa Salters to call the 2025 NBA Finals between the Thunder and Pacers. The NBA Countdown pregame show with host Malika Andrews and analysts Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Bob Myers, and ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania will be on-site for each of the games. Ditto for NBA Today, Hoop Streams, and the Hoop Collective. Despite the matchup between two small-market teams, ABC/ESPN parent Disney is forecasting an 8% jump in ad sales for the Finals.
ESPN-on-ESPN talent feuds are generally verboten in Bristol. But that doesn’t mean two ex-ESPNers can’t mix it up. See the recent shots fired between Bill Simmons and Pablo Torre. The dustup started when Simmons ripped Torre’s aggressive reporting on the relationship between Patriots legend turned UNC coach Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson. “I’ve never seen anybody dine on a stupider story for a week and a half while pretending you’re a journalist. What the fuck was that? Seriously,” asked Simmons during an episode of The Rewatchables. The feisty Torre fired back with a challenge of his own for The Sports Guy on X/Twitter. “Since you have such a strong public opinion about my work… I happen to have a few questions for you, specifically. Unless you’re afraid of@pablofindsout and someone just ‘pretending to be a journalist,’ of course. Thanks, Pablo,” he tweeted.
Steph Curry tells CNBC he’s eyeing a broadcast career once he retires from the NBA in the new special, “Curry Inc: The Business of Stephen Curry,” premiering Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. When CNBC’s Alex Sherman asks about moving to TV, Curry says “for sure” he’s interested. The Warriors legend notes teammate Draymond Green is already lining up his post-NBA media path. “I’m going to be more patient, I think, about what would be the right opportunity for me,” says Curry in the interview. “Because anything I do, I want to be all in on it. Right now, I’m just doing my homework on the different pathways and options that might be available.”
WFAN morning cohost Gregg Giannotti and former New York Giants great Carl Banks had a social media dustup after Banks didn’t like that Giannotti called Karl-Anthony Towns a loser.
Former ESPN Sport Science host John Brenkus has died at 54 years old. Our thoughts are with his friends and loved ones.
One Big Fig
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
2.73 million
Average viewership for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast of the 7–3 Yankees win over the Dodgers. The series finale between the two 2024 World Series teams marked Sunday Night Baseball’s biggest audience in seven years, wrote ESPN’s Buster Olney on X/Twitter. Previously, the five-game Dodgers victory in the 2024 World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers across all Fox Sports platforms—making it the most-watched Fall Classic since 2017. With Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani in the spotlight, it was also the most-watched World Series ever in Japan.
Question of the Day
Do you believe “Inside the NBA” will function the same way once it begins airing on ESPN platforms?
Friday’s result: 53% of respondents said they would still watch as much NBA coverage as they currently do now that TNT’s U.S. game rights have concluded.
