Tuesday is the last first game of the season for TNT’s popular and award-winning “Inside the NBA” program and crew.
Ernie Johnson. Charles Barkley. Kenny Smith. Shaquille O’Neal. A collective national treasure, if sports shows can be considered national treasures.
They have woven their way into the vibrant fabric of the NBA through the television screen – a perfectly imperfect blend of basketball, serious debate, humor, entertainment and life.
If you want just one of those things for your NBA viewing consumption, there are better places to go. If you appreciate the combination, it is the best place to go.
And this is their last season together or so it seems. TNT – part of Warner Bros. Discovery – will not televise NBA games following this season because the league signed in July an 11-year, $76 billion TV deal with ABC/ESPN, NBC and Amazon.
No more Ernie, Charles, Kenny and Shaq after the 2024-25 season. Not together anyway. At least that’s the way it looks as the groundbreaking show enters its 35th year.
Most NBA fans, including Commissioner Adam Silver, understand this is a shame. Even as Silver’s league exchanges court filings with Warner Bros., which filed a lawsuit against the NBA, he laments the loss of that show and workers concerned about their future.
“That show in particular is special. I have a close relationship with everyone who’s on that show, from the time they played in the league, as well, and Ernie and I have been friends forever,” Silver said at the NBA Finals in June.
Still, the league preferred a TV deal that doesn’t include TNT, and the legal system will settle the Warner Bros. lawsuit against the NBA (Nothing But Attorneys is the old joke). As the dispute seeks resolution, let’s enjoy Ernie, Charles, Kenny and Shaq.
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Tuesday night’s show opening the 2024-25 season is on location in Boston for the Boston Celtics-New York Knicks game, but when the show is from the Atlanta studio, Ernie Johnson will arrive at his TNT office between noon and 1 p.m. ET, making the 80-minute drive from distant suburbia. On his way, he might listen to the Avett Brothers radio or the Hamilton soundtrack or spiritual music. “It’s good for the soul,” Johnson told me three years ago.
A blackberry bush sits outside of Johnson’s office with a plaque that reads, “If there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s not to fear the unscripted, but to embrace it,” with Johnson’s signature.
At work. In life.
Shortly after Johnson, the gracious, patient and funny host, became a father, he invented the phrase “blackberry moments.” It’s derived from a Little League baseball experience Johnson had as a kid. A baseball had disappeared over the fence, and two outfielders hadn’t returned in a timely manner. They were discovered picking and eating blackberries – distracted by joy and wonder.
“It became this modern-day parable for me where if I’m too busy, if I’m not going to step away from the game – and that can be my job, my next conference call or whatever you’re holding up there as the most important thing – and find the blackberries, then you’re missing out on a lot of things,” Johnson said.
Barkley calls Johnson “the nicest person I know.”
The host plays many roles, and Johnson has been called a traffic cop. But he disagrees, and he’s right. “A good traffic cop never wants a fender bender,” said Johnson who loves a good fender bender between O’Neal to his right and Smith and Barkley to his left.
There’s just enough mischief from Johnson to foster all the elements that resonate with viewers. Johnson became the full-time host in 1990-91, the season after the show debuted. Smith joined the program as a full-timer in 1998 and Barkley in 2000. O’Neal has been with the show since 2011.
“When you threw Chuck in there, his whole view was, ‘Look, if the game’s horrible, let’s talk about something else,’ ” Johnson said. “What he planted in the minds of viewers was this, ‘I don’t know what might happen. I know if I turn on this basketball show, it may not all be basketball, and a lot of times when it’s not, it’s really funny.’ … It’s OK to have fun. It’s OK to poke fun at each other. It’s OK to run to the board. It’s OK if Chuck is going to show up in shorts and we’re going to make him walk around. All of that stuff was fair game.
“I couldn’t imagine if I went in there and was getting ready for the show and I thought, ‘The only thing we’re going to be doing tonight is talking basketball.’ ”
Shortly after Barkley joined the show, Johnson asked Barkley how long he planned to be around. ‘I said, ‘Ernie, I’m going to be here three to four years, and then hopefully I’ll take over a NBA team after that,’ ‘ Barkley told me Saturday. ‘At least for the last seven years, five or six times a year, he says to me, ‘We’re only going to be here three or four years.’ And we just have a good laugh about it.’
“Inside the NBA” knows its audience. That’s a significant factor in its popularity and success. It has won 21 Sports Emmy Awards, and Johnson and Barkley have won seven and five Sports Emmys for best studio host and best studio analyst. “Inside the NBA” was the first NBA show to earn the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy honor awarded to media. For the final season, longtime producer Tim Kiely is coming out of retirement to lead the show.
‘You can’t just talk about basketball for regular fans,’ Barkley said. ‘The rest of the people, you’ve got to make them laugh or be entertained. That’s really the most important part.’
The big egos helped make the program work because they aren’t afraid to hold back, aren’t afraid to challenge each other and allow themselves to poke fun at one another. From that kind of give-and-take, “Inside the NBA” spawned popular segments – Who He Play For? EJ’s Neat-O Stat of the Night, Gone Fishin’ and Shaqtin’ A Fool.
They understand the games, while important, are not life and death, and they understand life and death. The examples: the somber, emotional episode following Kobe Bryant’s death; discussing the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas; Smith walking off the set in solidarity with players following the shooting of Jacob Blake as the NBA continued its season in the Orlando bubble; and Johnson’s on-air teammates remembering the life of Johnson’s son, Michael, who died in 2021.
Watching “Inside the NBA” is like hanging out with friends. There is going to be laughter, discussions about life, some arguments, a few tears, but mostly a good time. Longtime viewers have their favorite moments, and to reward those fans, there are tentative plans to take “Inside the NBA” on the road about once a month this season.
“There’s never been anything like ‘Inside the NBA’ in sports media, and there’s not going to be anything like it if it’s gone after next year,” wrote The Athletic’s David Aldridge, who made appearances on the show when he worked for the network.
How is Barkley approaching the show this season? ‘Going to try to make it the best year ever,’ he said. ‘Because no matter what happens, it’ll never be the same because of a couple of things. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next, but Ernie would never go to another network. Even if me, Shaq, and Kenny went to another network, it still would never be the same.
‘Let’s say be honest. Even if Ernie went with us, it would never be the same because the people at Amazon or NBC, they would not know us like the people at Turner knew us after 24 or 25 years.’
The opening night Tuesday of “Inside the NBA” reminds me of the new song from the outstanding young bluegrass musician Billy Strings called “The Beginning of the End.”
“So this is the beginning of the end
It’s been a real nice time and I can’t wait
To see you folks again
This is the beginning of the end
If there’s anyone around
You throw your arm around a friend”
We will see all the folks again, throughout this season. After that, we’ll still see them, just in different capacities and perhaps with different networks and not all together.
So, for the next 50 or so episodes of “Inside the NBA” this season, we will throw our arms around a friend.
Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt
