As TNT’s legendary Inside the NBA prepares to leave its longtime home and move to ESPN, Shaquille O’Neal is speaking up—and he’s not holding back. While fans are celebrating the show’s survival after TNT’s NBA deal ends, Shaq is raising eyebrows with a very real concern: Can ESPN handle Charles Barkley?
During a recent appearance on The Pivot Podcast, Shaq admitted he’s a little uneasy about the show’s next chapter, despite all the familiar faces—Shaq, Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson—remaining on board.
“If you look at the reality of the situation, we all re-signed, we’re gonna be there, we’re shooting in the same place, everybody’s coming back,” Shaq explained. “The name and the title is going to be different. The only thing I’m concerned with is, we’re going on a bigger network—will they be able to handle our shenanigans?”
For fans of the show, those “shenanigans” are the very heart of Inside the NBA—the jokes, the roasting, and yes, the occasional hot take that pushes the envelope. And no one pushes that envelope more than Charles Barkley.
“Can Charles talk about fat women in San Antonio?” Shaq asked, referring to one of Barkley’s most infamous running jokes. “Can we talk about people’s hairlines and make them cut their hair? That’s the only thing I’m worried about.”
Shaq went on to explain that it was Barkley’s unapologetic attitude that made him respect him so much. He recalled a moment early in their working relationship when TNT higher-ups called the crew into a rare pre-production meeting. The topic? Viewer complaints about Barkley’s San Antonio jokes.
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Barkley’s response wasn’t just memorable—it was classic Chuck.
“Hi, this is Charles Barkley,” he said live on-air that night. “You guys are getting a lot of complaints about me talking about San Antonio women. I don’t give a f***! If you don’t like what I say, turn the goddamn channel. Y’all can fire me today, I’m still gonna get paid. I’m gonna say what I want to say.”
Shaq’s reaction? “I said, ‘I love that mother***er.’ That he was real.”
While Barkley has since said that TNT tried to shut down the joke due to “cancel culture,” the bit survived and even popped up again just a couple of months ago. But with ESPN now taking over the show—airing in primetime, no less—Shaq is right to wonder if those moments of unscripted chaos will still be allowed.
ESPN has shown it can take a hands-off approach—just look at The Pat McAfee Show—but Inside the NBA is a bigger beast. It’s a cornerstone program airing during the most-watched nights of the season. And let’s not forget, ESPN has its own NBA crew, and they may want some of that spotlight too.
Even if ESPN lets the show be, some things will inevitably change. The show likely won’t go until 2 a.m. ET like it did on TNT, and the vibe could shift with the new time slot and network expectations.
Still, Shaq and the crew are ready to roll. “We’re bringing the pain,” he said in an earlier episode. “You can never kill the Four Horsemen.”
So will Inside the NBA still be the wild, hilarious, unpredictable party that fans love? We’ll find out soon. But one thing’s for sure—Shaq and Chuck are ready to test the limits.