Charles Barkley Gets Roasted by Inside the NBA Crew on ESPN Debut

Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew debuted on ESPN on the 2nd day of the 2025-26 NBA season.

Charles Barkley Gets Roasted by Inside the NBA Crew on ESPN Debut

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley (Image via FirstSportz)

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Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew of Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and host Ernie Johnson are finally back for the 2025-26 season as part of ESPN’s broadcast.

This culminates a long and eventful past year, where the show was first thought to be over after TNT decided not to pour billions into the NBA. Thankfully, they reached an agreement with ESPN to continue broadcasting the show through the latter’s network.

It also ends up being hilarious, as Barkley, for time immemorial, used to troll those who work at ESPN. He was primarily taking shots at how much the network used to work its staff on various shows.

The Hall of Famer once said that he would never work for the network due to their work demands. Now that he is finally being broadcast on the network, he said this after their introduction.

I was nervous today… Every person who’s ever touched a ball wanted to be on ESPN. They are the greatest sports network ever. To be working with these guys is an honor and a privilege.

Charles Barkley said

After he said this, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal broke out into a bout of laughter. Barkley tried to reason that every basketball player growing up wanted to be featured on ESPN. To that, Smith said this:

Do you want a napkin for all that kissing up you just did?

Kenny Smith countered

This comment sent the entire production crew, along with Johnson, laughing hysterically, as Smith had just caught his colleague reversing course and essentially saying good things now that he is working with ESPN.

Charles Barkley gets back at Kenny Smith

After he was called out, Charles Barkley was reminded of all the things he had said in the past about working on ESPN. At this time, Ernie Johnson asked the former league MVP if he was scheduled to appear on other shows, to which he denied. But then, he said this:

I saw you on ESPN today. Talking about kissing up. Does it taste like chicken? Oh, now we are sponsored by Popeyes.

Charles Barkley told Kenny Smith

Smith appeared on First Take earlier in the morning to speak about the NBA season. Barkley caught on with that, trolling his colleague for using the chance to appear on multiple shows.

This was from the first few minutes of Inside the NBA’s debut on ESPN, and this clip went viral for their great chemistry. It seems Barkley’s fears about how their show would appear on the network have been set aside.

Charles Barkley and Inside the NBA will not be as regular as before

When Charles Barkley and his team of Inside the NBA were part of TNT, they held exclusive rights over NBA coverage and were also the de facto game analysis show for the network.

Inside the NBA debuts on ESPN
Inside the NBA debuts on ESPN (Image via ESPN/X)

Now, at ESPN, their situation is a lot more complicated. The network has a plethora of shows and personnel dedicated to the NBA. This led to some extreme rescheduling.

To accommodate Inside the NBA, the network has had to cancel episodes of NBA Countdown. On the days the latter is not being produced, host Malika Andrews is on sideline reporting duty.

Back with TNT, Barkley, O’Neal, Smith, and Johnson would normally work once a week, and on additional days during playoff coverage. Now, on their new network, they will work less.

As per the schedule, the quartet will not be on a regular weekly schedule. Instead, they have been as per the requirements of both ESPN and TNT, to whom they are contracted.

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