ESPN management insists they’ll have a hands-off approach to Inside the NBA, but Shaquille O’Neal has concerns about them remaining hands-off with Charles Barkley.
With the NBA on TNT coming to an end after 35 years, ESPN is saving its beloved studio show Inside the NBA from extinction through a licensing agreement. But instead of praising ESPN for keeping Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and Shaq together, NBA fans are sharing concerns about the Worldwide Leader attempting to put their own stamp on the show. Kenny Smith recently admitted he has concerns about the move to ESPN, and now O’Neal did the same during an interview on The Pivot Podcast.
“If you look at the reality of the situation, we all re-signed, we’re gonna be there, we’re shooting in the same place, everybody’s coming back. The name and the title is going to be different,” O’Neal said on The Pivot. “The only thing I’m concerned with is, we’re going on a bigger network, will they be able to handle our shenanigans? Can Charles talk about fat women in San Antonio? Can we talk about people’s hairlines and make them cut their hair? That’s the only thing I’m worried about.”
And he’s legitimately worried. Because according to O’Neal, it was talking about the women of San Antonio that truly made him grow to respect Barkley.
“He’s a great guy,” O’Neal said, noting Barkley makes him wish he grew up with an older brother. “He’s gonna say what he wants to say and he doesn’t care. I knew Charles was real one day because they never call us in for a pre-production meeting, we get the text early, ‘Come at 3pm.’ We get there and all the top guys are there.”
O’Neal said those top guys, presumably TNT Sports executives, kicked off the production meeting by informing the Inside the NBA crew they’ve been receiving a lot of complaints about Barkley mocking the women of San Antonio. Barkley said he would take care of the issue and he did so by looking into the camera and addressing it at the start of that night’s show.
“This is what he did,” O’Neal recalled. “He said, ‘Hi, this is Charles Barkley, you guys are getting a lot of complaints about me talking about San Antonio women. I don’t give a f***! If you don’t like what I say, turn the goddamn channel. Y’all can fire me today, I’m still gonna get paid. I’m gonna say what I want to say.’ I said, ‘I love that mother***er,’ that he was real.”
Barkley has since claimed TNT executives attempted to end the women of San Antonio bit because of “cancel culture.” Despite their best efforts, Barkley’s favorite bit has survived and was on display as recently as two months ago. O’Neal, however, seems concerned that ESPN will be more pushy on convincing Barkley to drop the women of San Antonio bit and other jokes from his repertoire.
ESPN deserves some benefit of the doubt after already proved they’re willing to be hands-off when it comes to The Pat McAfee Show. But ESPN should also have more incentive to want influence over Inside the NBA. There is more at stake with Inside the NBA than The Pat McAfee Show. McAfee is a weekday show at noon, whereas Inside the NBA will be a primetime studio show meant to placate the NBA. Additionally, ESPN already has their own NBA talent that they should want to spotlight. What better way to do that than by giving them a chance to appear on the best studio show in sports?
But even if ESPN does leave Inside the NBA alone, the show will be different. It will be on at a different time, and likely for a different length of time. ESPN letting Inside the NBA air until 2am ET seems unlikely. That doesn’t mean the show can’t still be great, but at a minimum, it will be different. And whenever something is different, its audience, fans and consumers will fear the worst until they’re convinced otherwise.