It’s only been a week, but the Inside the NBA era on ESPN is already off to an amazing start.
ESPN made good on their promises to keep the best studio show in sports as is without changing what has made it so special over the years. The cast of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal have all been allowed the freedom and flexibility to be themselves. And the TNT Sports group is still producing and airing the show from Atlanta. We’ve even gotten a classic edition of “Who He Play For?”
But the Inside the NBA crew is also settling in to their new home and the surreal nature of the unique licensing agreement that has allowed it to continue on ESPN even though TNT Sports lost their NBA package. Last week, the relationship started with a hilarious montage of Charles Barkley bashing the network over the years. This week, it was ESPN itself that was the punchline of the jokes.
In leading off Wednesday’s pregame show on ESPN before a doubleheader, Ernie Johnson joked that the cast had not yet talked about the Dallas Cowboys. Charles Barkley added that they were contractually obligated to do so, before burying the team’s defense much to the chagrin of Shaquille O’Neal.
The amazing thing is that even ESPN itself is in on the joke. It was the official SportsCenter account that tweeted out the Inside the NBA segment, complete with a meme photo of the cast as Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
Talking the Cowboys on Inside The NBA?? 😂 pic.twitter.com/PobMPS5t9h
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 29, 2025
In case you somehow only watch ESPN for live sports or have been without internet or cable for the past 25 years, you may not realize that ESPN loves to talk about the Dallas Cowboys. A lot. All day, every day. Even throughout the offseason where there is nothing remotely newsworthy to discuss about the Dallas Cowboys, ESPN is still there to cover the Dallas Cowboys. We even saw it this past summer when Get Up was debating Dak Prescott’s legacy on the morning of Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
The Inside the NBA cast isn’t alone at ESPN in calling out their own network for so much Cowboys chatter. But this level of self-awareness has hardly ever been seen on Bristol airwaves. It’s fun and refreshing to see this kind of levity and self-deprecation on ESPN airwaves. But Inside the NBA may want to be careful if they ever start roasting Pat McAfee given how he responds to any sort of comments.