Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal and Ernie Johnson premiered on ESPN ahead of a doubleheader Wednesday with laughs, jabs and basketball analysis.

The legendary show felt exactly the same on its new network. And our columnists say that is exactly the point.

Dedicated viewers will observe that TNT has been booted off entirely after 40 years of broadcasting the league. “Inside the NBA,” TNT’s poster broadcast, has been moved off Tuesdays and Thursdays and replaced by NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime, respectively.

Johnson Jr. is the widely respected, six-time Sports Emmy Award-winning host and anchor of Inside the NBA. Beyond the NBA, he is the lead host for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament coverage on CBS/Turner and has covered numerous other major sporting events, including the MLB, NFL, and the Olympics.

Now that the analysts at the beloved "Inside the NBA" program are syndicated at ESPN, their schedule will look very different with the new TV deal.

The NBA returned to NBC's airwaves for the first time in 23 years on Tuesday night and made an immediate impression on basketball fans, who have

Details for fans on how and when to watch the popular program "Inside the NBA" on ESPN during the 2025-26 NBA season.

For years, ESPN's NBA studio shows couldn't match the alchemy of TNT's 'Inside the NBA.' So they went out and acquired it.

Barkley’s apparent weight loss was mined Wednesday for laughs, as was the cast’s new home following a decades-long run on TNT, in an hour-long pregame show filled with the mirth and trash talk that came to define a program hugely popular among basketball fans.

The NBA's return to NBC with a doubleheader on Tuesday night averaged 5.61 million viewers, marking the most-watched October opening night in 15 years.

This is the first season of a future-altering media rights extension that the Big 12 struck with ESPN and Fox back in 2022.