ESPN president of content Burke Magnus wants to assure all fans of “Inside The NBA” that his company is not going to mess around with the iconic show.
When the “Inside The NBA” crew comes to ESPN this season, Magnus told The Athletic that they will be on for the pregame, halftime and postgame.
Asked directly if “Inside” will be able to go as long as it did on TNT when it comes to postgame talk, Magnus said, “That is our goal. It will be as close to that as we can possibly get. I understand that standard operating procedure for us for many years has been to get to SportsCenter. There’s going to be 200 or 300 (other) nights or so that we’re still going to do that.”
The full details of how ESPN will use “Inside The NBA” are likely to emerge over the next three weeks. Still, Magnus told The Athletic that the famed crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal will be part of ESPN’s opening night coverage on Oct. 22 (Cleveland Cavaliers versus New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs versus Dallas Mavericks).
“(Fans are) going to get the show they love in a way that’s very similar to the way it’s always been,” Magnus said. “It’s still produced in Atlanta by the very same people that produced it for Turner. It’s in their building. Other than a logo on the set, it’s going to appear the same, and that’s exactly what we want.”
“Inside” will then have a hiatus early in the season, as ESPN’s NBA schedule is backloaded. The “Inside” crew will be on the air for the Christmas Day lineup. Magnus confirmed the group will be on the air for all of ESPN’s playoff nights.
For 35 years, “Inside the NBA” has been a basketball mainstay for TNT, relying on the smooth workings of host Johnson (since 1990) to navigate the observations — and personalities — of analysts Smith (joined in 1998), Barkley (2000) and O’Neal (2011). The show collected 21 Sports Emmys over that time and, in 2020, was honored by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Media Award, making it the first NBA telecast to earn the honor.
Given that TNT is not part of the NBA’s new 11-year, $76 billion media rights agreement, ESPN reached a landmark licensing deal to broadcast the show on Disney properties.
“When these guys are going, we’re going to let them go,” Magnus said. “We have a few more complications than Turner with live events, but we also have more platforms and more networks to deal with. We want the same outcome as the headline here. The equivalent would be if we acquired College GameDay and then said, ‘You know what? We think two hours is better than three.’ None of that is going to happen.”
On nights when the “Inside the NBA” crew is not present, Magnus said ESPN will utilize its “NBA Countdown” crew, which includes Malika Andrews, Bob Myers, Kendrick Perkins and Michael Wilbon, among others. He discussed “Inside The NBA” and other ESPN-related topics in a long-form interview with the “Sports Media Podcast” that will be published in the upcoming days.
Magnus said what will be different is based on scheduling, because ESPN’s NBA schedule is different than what Turner had.
For example, ESPN holds the rights to Wednesday NBA doubleheaders, Saturday nights on ABC and Sunday afternoons on ABC, with an occasional Friday game also in the mix. Turner had Tuesdays and Thursdays, with no sports programming after games to put constraints on the flexibility of “Inside” to run long.
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