This upcoming NBA season will be the last run of TNT's "Inside the NBA," after 26 long years. NBA commissioner Adam Silver understands what the end of this iconic sports broadcast show means not only to NBA fans who have religiously followed it but also to the employees involved—especially the ones who have been working behind the scenes.
"… I will say on behalf of the hardworking folks on and off the air at Turner Sports, I feel for them. They've been great partners over many years, and to the extent that they will not continue as an entity covering the NBA, I feel bad for those individuals ," Silver said in the most recent NBA Board of Governors Press Conference.
Silver's "wait and see" approach
The main reason "Inside the NBA"" has ended is that Amazon won the rights to be the league's media partner instead of TNT. These are the same employees who have been part of the 35-year run that built up this award-winning show. According to one of the show's prominent hosts and Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley , there are probably going to be 200 employees who will lose their jobs.
While there's no concrete plan yet for what will happen to the potential 200 employees who are about to lose their jobs, Silver thinks they will still be around to cover the NBA, whether on TNT or at another network.
" Having said that, I really don't know what will happen to the on- and off-air people who comprise "Inside the NBA." I think let's wait and see where we go from there. It's hard for me to imagine whether they continue to work in some aspect for Turner Sports or do something somewhere else, I have no idea. It's hard for me to imagine, though, given that they're all at the top of their game that they're going to stop working and stop covering the league ," Silver added.
For Barkley, it's an ownership problem
When news about "Inside the NBA" possibly being canceled gained more traction last May, it was "Sir Charles" who went on the record to say that he blames the ownership behind Warner Bros, the company that owns TNT, for not finding a way to continue its partnership with the NBA. Instead of TNT, Silver and the league decided to go with Disney/ESPN, Amazon, and NBC.
" Morale sucks plain and simple. I just feel so bad for the people I work with Dan," Barkley said in his appearance on "The Dan Patrick Show" last May. "You know, these people have families and I just really feel bad for them right now. These people I work with [TNT], they screwed this thing up clearly, and we don't have zero idea what's going to happen. I don't feel good. I'm not going to lie, especially when it came out yesterday and said they bought college football, I was like, damn, they could've’ve used that money to buy the NBA ," Barkley said.
While the NBA community continues to rightfully mourn the end of "Inside the NBA" because they will never see anything like the crew of Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson Jr again, it's unfortunate that the bigger problem here is that there will be a lot of employees and families affected by the end of this legendary sports program especially those who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the show what it is today.
Related: Charles Barkley is heartbroken about the 'Inside the NBA's' future: "Next year is gonna be a bittersweet year"
Local News
