Bill Simmons is not betting on “Inside the NBA” being as good of a show once it moves from TNT to ESPN next season.
The sports media mogul, during Sunday’s episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” admitted he thinks his old employer is going to “f–k” the beloved hoops show up.
Why? Simmons said he believes ESPN’s commercial structure will cut into the conversations between Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and host Ernie Johnson — a move that could sabotage the show’s flow.
“Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is going to be different and people are going to be pissed and Barkley and those guys are going to be pissed,” Simmons explained. “I think it’s going to go badly.”
The only way it will work, Simmons added, is if ESPN changes its format to accomodate “Inside” and “give them the lenghty segments” that make the show work.
Simmons is speaking from experience when it comes to ESPN’s producing of NBA shows.
“The Sports Guy” — who first made his name writing columns for ESPN in the early 2000s, before branching out into podcasting and co-creating “30 for 30” — was on ESPN’s pre- and post-game NBA show from 2012 to 2014. He left ESPN a year later and founded The Ringer, which was bought by Spotify for approximately $200 million in 2020.
His comments came a day after “Inside” had its final show on TNT. The channel had carried NBA games since 1989 — and the NBA’s relationship with Turner went back to 1984 — but the NBA’s new TV deal does not include Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT’s parent company. The NBA, starting next season, will remain on ESPN/ABC, while adding Amazon as a partner and returning to NBC, where games were broadcast from 1990 to 2002.
As part of the changes, “Inside the NBA” will be moving to ESPN; it will still be produced by TNT Sports, but Simmons, at least, is skeptical the show’s magic will remain the same on ESPN.
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