Charles Barkley Reveals What Hurt Him The Most Amid Inside The NBA Drama

After a controversial back-and-forth involving the NBA, TNT, and Amazon, it now appears that a conclusion has been reached. Amazon will officially take over as the NBA's new broadcast partner starting next season after the league accepted their massive $1.8 billion bid.

This only means that one of the basketball world's most-loved shows, Inside the NBA , will officially bid farewell once TNT's contract ends. As such, the 2024-25 season will serve as the farewell tour of Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith.

In a recent appearance on Philadelphia 76ers superstar Paul George's podcast, Barkley shared his brutally honest thoughts on their show's looming finale. Clearly, the Hall of Famer is hurting over this tragic turn of events.

“So these people become part of your family," Barkley said of his co-workers on the program. "I mean if you think about you've been working with the same people for 24 years. ... You know them, their kids, their husbands, you know their wives.

"This has been really depressing for me because we kind of knew we were going to lose the thing. I mean, it was one of the worst-kept secrets in the history of civilization."

Barkley went on to share how he's been deeply affected by how the show's ending will significantly impact everyone who has been working on the show for the past two decades.

"They were like, 'Man, I'm married, I got a wife, I got kids, I got a mortgage and I ain't got no f--- job,' and it really hurt me," Barkley continued. "It really hurt me that people–my friends was talking like that and I was like, 'Man, I ain't never been in that situation in my life where I was going to lose my job and I had a family to take care of and it was really heartbreaking.

"So that was painful and surreal for me and that hurt me the most. So it just really sucks, man and I can't believe we screwed it up. I can't believe we screwed it up. So next year's going to be a bittersweet year.”

That's just tough to hear.

You can almost feel the guilt in Barkley's statement here over the fact that there's simply nothing he can do about the show coming to an end.

Apart from the fact that he will miss his job and his friends, what's even more depressing for Barkley is how all this will impact the families of the people who will be losing their jobs at the end of the upcoming season.

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