The 2023-2024 NBA season was full of wild moments, but few were as shocking as the unexpected and sudden cancellation of Inside The NBA. With Turner losing out on broadcasting rights to NBA games, one of the best sports television shows of all time came to a rather sudden end and enraged basketball fans. While there’s still a chance a small deal may be struck to bring them back, co-host Charles Barkley hasn’t changed his mind about retiring after next year, and age is definitely a factor.
Barkley has been the cheerleader to save Inside The NBA and has said some wild things along the way about it ending. With that said, even if TNT is able to work out a smaller agreement with the NBA to bring the guys back together for more episodes, Barkley told CNBC he’s not willing to stay on television much longer. When it comes to why, the 61-year-old said he’s too old to be starting over:
The main reason I was talking about next year being my last year, I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to work for another network. It’ll be twenty-five years that I’ve been working with Turner, and I love everyone at Turner. At this age, to go over and start over, I don’t know if I want to do that.
There was speculation that the Inside The NBA crew could migrate over to another network like NBC when the NBA media rights were announced, but it seems that is not in the cards. We’ve already heard co-host Ernie Johnson intended to remain at Turner for the rest of his career, and it seems Barkley is unwilling to work for another employer as well. If Turner can’t work out some sort of deal with the NBA, it truly feels like this series is done. Hey, at least we’ll all have the classic Chuck and Shaq moments to look back on.
Of course, the CNBC host was not willing to take such an answer at face value. Money talks in show business, and the host speculated there would be a dollar amount that would make Sir Charles reconsider his retirement stance. The former NBA legend shrugged off the notion, and gave one of his classic responses that has led him to be one of the best people in sports commentary:
I played in the NBA for fifteen years. I’ve been on television for twenty-four years. If I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest loser in the world.
While Charles Barkley has lost a shocking amount of money gambling, he’s still well off enough financially to feel comfortable with the life he’s set up in retirement. In short, it seems like he doesn’t need the money. So, I would speculate the only way he’d return is if he wanted to do it or thought it would benefit the people whose jobs he advocated for when rumors first swirled about Inside The NBA ending.
Even then, Charles Barkley might just want to enjoy retirement and the money he’s made over his career. Plus, with more free time during the NBA season, he’d have more time for other projects, like possibly making another wild appearance on Saturday Night Live. Sure, I’d prefer he keep telling jokes on Inside The NBA indefinitely, but if he’s so unwilling to start over somewhere else, I’d hate to see him force it elsewhere.
As mentioned, we’re still waiting to see if Turner will be able to land some sort of agreement with the NBA, and we’ll see another episode or two of Inside The NBA on TNT or another one of their networks. If not, hopefully, another sports show fills the void on the 2024 TV schedule that’s just as entertaining, though they’ll have some pretty big shoes to fill.