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ESPN is now showing interest in hiring Charles Barkley and the entire cast of “Inside the NBA



ESPN is now showing interest in hiring Charles Barkley and the entire cast of “Inside the NBA

by Fit-Structure-9395

39 Comments

  1. DefiniteSauce12

    Nooooooooo. ESPN has the fakest personalities. Dont become them

  2. LegitimateMoney00

    I trust Amazon way more when it comes to hiring them which they do appear to be interested in also.

    ESPN will one way or another, royally fuck it all up, just like with everything else they get their hands on.

  3. Doesn’t work with ESPN because they cut to commercial every 2 minutes and won’t let them be them

  4. rubyschnees

    you just know they’d try to shove stephen a in the middle of it and completely ruin the dynamic

  5. Rcky_Mountain_High

    If there is one group that I am going to bet on to tell ESPN and Disney to piss off and let them do their thing how they want to if they get hired, it is this crew. My god would it be so nice to kick ESPNs current NBA broadcast to the curb and let the Inside the NBA continue. But I dream….

  6. Jack_The_Sparrow_

    Keep your hands off Chuck you filthy casuals

  7. HokageEzio

    Disney has crazy money but I feel like Amazon is a way better fit if they’re actually capable of getting the whole thing. But none of it really matters if Ernie isn’t jumping with them.

  8. Goosedukee

    >The Chuckster could command $20 million-plus offers from the NBA’s new trio of rights partners: newcomer Prime; incumbent ABC/ESPN; and former broadcast partner NBC, which held the rights during the Michael Jordan golden era from 1990 to 2002. ESPN is already eying Barkley and the entire cast of Inside the NBA, say my sources. Ditto for Prime.
    >
    >As Marine hinted, Barkley might not be the only one in line for a big payday. Any of the newest NBA rights partners could try to hire the entire cast—effectively recreating Inside the NBA on a different platform.Prime could build its NBA studio coverage around the Inside the NBA team. With a market capitalization of $2 trillion, and more than 200 million subscribers worldwide, Prime could afford the cast en masse. Meanwhile, ESPN has been lusting after Barkley for years, with its own NBA Countdown studio show struggling through a revolving door of cast changes. Don’t forget ESPN solved its Monday Night Football problem by raiding Fox Sports to hire away Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. As for NBC, who would be better than a ‘90s icon like Barkley to reboot the network’s “Roundball Rock” coverage of The Association?
    >
    >Or it could be a two-step process. Barkley told Dan Patrick he could hire Shaquille O’Neal–Kenny Smith–Ernie Johnson through his own production company, then sell the show to the highest bidder.

    ​

    So basically everybody wants them. Chuck will go to the highest bidder, probably the same for Shaq and Kenny. Ernie isn’t leaving Turner, so really the only way they keep them all together is on Prime.

  9. Ernie isn’t going to leave turner.

    And Chuck will prefer retirement to not able to speak freely.

  10. tenacious-g

    Any network exec that is allegedly good at their job should be calling the cast of the best sports studio show ever if they suddenly become available. This would be a no brainer for them.

    A good programming exec should also know that if they somehow get them to move over to ESPN, you do not touch anything that made them great. Sign their paychecks and that is it.

  11. Weary_Cheetah6103

    Someone needs to hire that crew and continue Inside the NBA. The rest of the NBA broadcasts suck


  12. moutonbleu

    TNT should just license the show out to the highest bidder.

  13. thisguy-rr

    If they somehow cut stephen a smith and replace him with inside the nba crew. I’ll never skip the half time show

  14. CoolingVent

    Thas like putting a mustang gt engine in a Ford focus. Don’t want.

  15. GunAndAGrin

    “If you take the program from TNT, you likely lose many of the behind-the-scenes staffers in Atlanta who’ve helped make it a success.”

    This is a pretty critical factor, imo. The studio production team for Inside played a large role in the success of that program. Obviously the personalities are the most important roles, but the crew would need to come with them. Some of that crew had been working with them for years. Theres crew members that are part of some of the bits that define the character of the show.

    Im not sure I have faith in the quality of the product being the same or better if its just the Inside cast with ESPN/Amazon production teams.

  16. Please no. I don’t want this racist on live TV anymore

  17. NielsenSTL

    This only works if they let them do what they do (not likely). Don’t try to cram 12 min of ads in a 15 min break so they each get a minute. The current ESPN pre/half/post game shows are unwatchable.

  18. Illustrious-Hand3715

    Nah won’t happen. The things Chuck be saying and him and Shaq be laughing at some wild stuff. They will get fined a lot.

  19. So basically it’s going to be ESPN/Disney vs Prime for what’s left of Inside the NBA crew? I’d much rather Amazon bring them over than Disney. There will be less restrictions and censoring just by nature of being on a streaming platform than cable TV network owned by Disney. Amazon also seems much more likely to give them freedom and let them do their own thing since they’re new to NBA broadcasting game . Yeah it’s Prime all the way for me.

  20. RVAIsTheGreatest

    The question really will be whether Chuck actually does end up retiring or not….and whether EJ really does just stick with Turner and doesn’t ditch…..

  21. SecondsLater13

    “You ain’t gunna work me like a dog, then I come home with that punny paycheck.”

  22. TheMoorNextDoor

    Charles already said he ain’t working for ESPN and have them work him like a dog.

  23. Can’t wait for 5 minute commercials only to return for 10 seconds of broadcast with one line from Chuck, then back to commercials for another 5 minutes.

  24. ThinkingMSF

    Ehhhh… with TNT losing out, I was hoping to see more analysis and fewer clowns, but ESPN was never gonna be the place for that.

    But hey, if you’re gonna run a clown show anyway, may as well hire the best. Chuck’s a terrible analyst, but he’s funny, and half the reason he’s so funny is the chemistry he has with the rest of that crew. This is probably the best version of what ESPN wants to do.

  25. abonet619

    ESPN BETTER STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM INSIDE THE NBA I SWEAR TO FUCK

  26. RedGlovesOverHere

    ESPN will 100% ruin this crew! I really really hope they don’t!

    They’ll shove their own analyst and hot take artists into the show and just ruin the dynamics!

  27. I’m pretty sure Barkley will never work for ESPN. He always joked at how they overwork SAS

  28. frankielucas

    “You’re not going to work me like a dog”

  29. 21-hydroxylase

    PLEASE. Actually ESPN would prob find a way to ruin it. But I’ll take my chances.

  30. Knock0nWood

    You know what they say about putting lipstick on a pig

  31. spider2Ybanana

    Nooooooo – what will we do without the insights from Perk and Wilbon and Screaming A?

    ^^aslongaswearedreaming

    Also replace Shaq with RJ.

  32. underground_cowboys

    TNT should just keep the show going. They already get clips from all the other games. I’d flip over to watch them during half time breaks and post game analysis

  33. lennycooke

    You ain’t gonna work me like a dog and not pay me

    CB34

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