Charles Barkley Slams TNT Over Handling of ‘Inside the NBA’ Move to ESPN

August 1, 2025

Charles Barkley didn’t hold back when asked how he learned Inside the NBA would be leaving TNT.

“I thought TNT, our bosses, did a s****y job, they did an awful job of keeping us abreast,” Barkley said on the Pardon My Take podcast. “We were playing golf during the playoffs and we were reading the internet, finding out if we were going to get fired or not. And I was like TNT, our bosses, they sucked, plain and simple. Like yo man, just tell us… shoot us straight.”

The Hall of Famer said the show’s cast and crew were kept in the dark until the deal between the NBA and ESPN was already done.

“TNT never came to us like grown folks and said, ‘Hey guys, we’re probably gonna lose the NBA,’ which we could’ve understood,” Barkley added. “But I thought they sucked, I told them they sucked, because there’s a way you treat people.”

Barkley said he first realized something was official when ESPN personalities Scott Van Pelt, Brian Windhorst, Elle Duncan and Bob Myers texted to welcome him “to the family.”

“I’m like, ‘What family? What are you talking about?’ Then about an hour and a half later I get a call from TNT like, ‘Well, the story broke,’” Barkley said. “I said, ‘Well, you probably could’ve given us a heads up.’”

“You traded us to ESPN and we had to hear about it on the internet. That’s just not the way you do business.”

Inside the NBA had aired on TNT since 1989 and featured the current cast of Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith together for the last 14 years. Barkley joined the show in 2000 following his Hall of Fame playing career.

The show will remain intact, with the same cast, and continue to be produced at TNT Sports’ Atlanta studios. But it will now air on ESPN.