Charles Barkley isn’t happy about his light workload, and Colin Cowherd thinks it all might be part of an under-the-table agreement between ESPN and Adam Silver.
Earlier this week, Barkley joined The Dan Le Batard Show, where he said Inside the NBA’s transition from TNT to ESPN “has been great.” But Barkley did complain about having too light a workload in the new arrangement, after he spent more than a year warning ESPN not to work him too much.
The schedule for Inside the NBA shouldn’t have been a surprise; ESPN announced it before the season started. But after hearing Barkley’s gripe, Cowherd surmised ESPN and the NBA may have agreed to bury the popular studio show as best they can.
“ESPN has a great relationship with the NBA, and they said, ‘We’ll bring that show over, you won’t see it as much.’ Put it on the shelf a little bit.” – Colin Cowherd on ‘Inside the NBA’ pic.twitter.com/72E4szDL2z
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 23, 2026
“ESPN buried that show,” Cowherd guessed on his Friday afternoon FS1 and Fox Sports Radio show. “ESPN has a great relationship with the NBA, and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll bring that show over. You won’t see it as much.’ Put it on the shelf a little bit. Because Adam Silver…”
Because commissioner Adam Silver has openly praised shows that promote the league, while admitting he’s often frustrated by coverage of the sport that is overly critical. And it has become the schtick of Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal more so than Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith, to be overly critical of the league and its players.
“It felt very, very big at one time, and now it’s invisible,” Cowherd continued. “I know there were people upstairs in the NBA office that didn’t like how they lampooned the league and some of the players. People upstairs didn’t love – they would say, ‘NFL shows don’t make fun of the players, why are we making fun of the players?’
“Charles is complaining; it feels obvious to me,” Cowherd said. “You have these new deals, and there’s a lot of understandings that don’t have to be contractual. David Stern didn’t like when people were critical of the NBA either. They’re very sensitive in the NBA.”
When the NBA announced its current media rights agreement with ESPN, NBC, and Prime Video, leaving TNT on the outside looking in, the biggest concern amongst fans centered on the future of Ernie, Kenny, Shaq, and Chuck on Inside the NBA. ESPN tempered those concerns by licensing Inside the NBA and promised to keep it the same while still finding spots for its in-house studio show.
Other than its limited action, Inside the NBA has remained largely unchanged when it airs. And if the show was slated to continue playing a reserve role to NBA Countdown for the rest of the season, Cowherd’s point might have more credence. But with 15 shows scheduled from now through the end of the regular season, Barkley and crew are about to see a lot more airtime. Beyond the regular season, ESPN has already stated its intention to use Inside the NBA as shoulder programming around every one of its playoff games. That’s not burying Inside the NBA, that’s showcasing it.
Let’s face it, most sports fans don’t care about the NBA when the NFL is still on. It’s after the Super Bowl and into the playoffs that the NBA starts to receive more attention. And that’s exactly when ESPN is planning to utilize Inside the NBA. But if we get a muted version of the show or start to find it’s not airing when planned, maybe Cowherd’s conjecture will be worth revisiting.