The big game of musical chairs happening across NBA media the past year as NBC and Amazon entered the fray as broadcast partners resulted in numerous changes to how fans watch hoops on television, perhaps none more surprising than Charles Barkley and Inside the NBA ending up on ESPN.
The show, now licensed by the Worldwide Leader, welcomed fans in on the first full night of the NBA season and was there to hang out during the Worldwide Leader’s five-game slate on Christmas.
But because TNT, which produces Inside from Atlanta, now longer airs its own games, the hosts have been underutilized through the fall. ESPN content head Burke Magnus wants to schedule Barkley and Co. for more dates next season, but they figure to have fairly breezy schedules all season long, now that the playoffs will be split between three partners.
So while none of the Inside panel are ESPN employees, the network has no shortage of opportunities to showcase them on-air.
All of this led longtime ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst to recently predict that, despite his frequent ribbing to the contrary, Barkley will in fact join the Worldwide Leader’s studio shows once the NBA takes center stage in the spring. In fact, Windhorst believes Barkley will eagerly chase these opportunities.
“His trope is he’ll complain about how hard ESPN works you. Mark my words, when we get to the spring, Charles will want to do more TV,” Windhorst told Barrett Media in a story published Friday. “He’ll deny it, and that’s fine. But I’m telling you, Charles loves sports television.”
Such a shift could see Barkley unofficially follow his longtime Inside colleague Kenny Smith, who inked a contract to be part of ESPN’s NBA coverage shortly after the show began airing on the network. Of course, nobody would be surprised to see Barkley formalize the arrangement and find his way into an ESPN payday.
ESPN and ABC will air the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals next spring, when Inside will be in the spotlight. Don’t be surprised if (especially with the Knicks in pole position) Barkley pops into the Manhattan studios to join Get Up or First Take.
As for the diminished status of NBA Countdown as Inside becomes the central NBA studio show for the Worldwide Leader, Windhorst is not worried, telling Barrett that both shows are pleased to no longer be competitors.
And getting to return to Countdown as one of ESPN’s top on-air NBA talent was a major reason Windhorst chose to come back to the network after welcoming talks with NBC and Amazon.
“I’m happy to be in the role with NBA Countdown,” Windhorst told Barrett. “Whether I’m on for ten weeks or ten years, I’m happy to play the role as much as I can to story tell.”