Gilbert Arenas Claims NBC, Adam Silver Plotted to Make Charles Barkley’s Inside the NBA Look Bad

Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew had been overtly critical of the NBA in the past few years.

Gilbert Arenas Claims NBC, Adam Silver Plotted to Make Charles Barkley’s Inside the NBA Look Bad

Adam Silver, Gilbert Arenas, Charles Barkley (Image via FirstSportz)

In Short
  • Gilbert Arenas claims NBC and Adam Silver conspired to undermine Charles Barkley and Inside the NBA.
  • Barkley criticized the NBA's new broadcasting deal, labeling it as greedy and harmful to casual fans.
  • The 2026 All-Star game achieved 8.8 million viewers, contradicting Barkley's predictions about declining viewership.

For nearly three decades, Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew were the staple for basketball analysis as TNT headlined the league’s broadcasting efforts.

That changed at the start of this season when NBC and Amazon Prime Video joined ESPN/ABC, after the trio signed a deal that would see the league earn $76 billion over the next eleven years.

Naturally, the Round Mound of Rebound was one of the most vocal critics of this arrangement, categorically labeling the NBA as being ‘greedy’ and not looking out for its fans. He predicted that the move to multiple subscription models would push away casual fans and pose a significant risk to the league’s future.

When the numbers for the 2026 All-Star game became public, it was evident that Charles Barkley’s ‘prediction’ was incorrect and/or biased, as NBC pulled 8.8 million viewers, the most in the past fifteen years.

I said NBC said, ‘This year, which was last year, this was going to be the worst All-Star numbers, because they had SNL 50th anniversary going on, and they knew LeBron James wasn’t playing.’ And then they said last year that this year they’re gonna say it was the highest numbers, because they counted different.

Gilbert Arenas said on his namesake show

The three-time All-Star then played a clip from Gil’s Arena, his other show, from February 2025 to confirm he said this. Gilbert Arenas then said that this was the plan all along, to make Charles Barkley, Inside the NBA, and TNT, look bad.

Charles Barkley and Inside the NBA did irk Adam Silver quite a bit

Gilbert Arenas might have a theory surrounding what Adam Silver’s NBA and NBC did to undermine Charles Barkley, his Inside the NBA show, and TNT.

However, those are just claims, and the league would generally refute them. But there could be a reason this happened, especially when one looks at the events leading up to TNT and the NBA’s split.

Not the financial kind, as the network, or rather Warner Bros. Discovery, made it clear they were better off not heeding the NBA’s demands. The organization was already struggling with losses, and adding billions to that bill would not have made sense.

However, what possibly truly irked Adam Silver and the NBA’s top brass was how Charles Barkley and his crew were at the forefront of criticism about today’s game. The commissioner had mentioned quite a few times that he wished the media would do what happens in the NFL, MLB, or NHL, that is, not be critical about the way the sport is played.

But Charles Barkley stuck to his guns and continued to criticize the league and its players. Then, others started to follow that trend, and it did impact the league’s popularity, particularly among younger fans.

Charles Barkley does not like ESPN’s schedule

Now that TNT is off the schedule, Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew are working through ESPN. This season, there was much anticipation on how that would work out, but the Hall of Famer is not happy.

Inside the NBA crew are struggling with ESPN's schedule
Inside the NBA crew are struggling with ESPN’s schedule (Image via Legion Hoops/X)

I think they wanted to back-end load the schedule. We’re going to be working a lot starting next week. We worked three days last week. I’ve been working one day a week for the last 25 years, or anything more than one day is tough… I wish they had spread it out more, to be honest with you.

Charles Barkley said

This was the former league MVP’s answer when the cast of The Next Round asked him about his time with ESPN. It seems Barkley, who famously loves to work just one day a week, does not like the back-loaded schedule.

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