TNT
Inside The NBA aired its final episode of the 2023-24 season on Thursday, May 30 following the Dallas Mavericks’ Game 5 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It also may be the beloved basketball show’s last season finale because, due to TNT potentially losing the NBA’s broadcasting rights, next season would be Inside The NBA‘s *series* finale, i.e., its last ever episode.
The Inside The NBA crew, as they’ve been famed to do, have been cracking jokes about the potential beginning of the end for the entirety of the playoffs, including Charles Barkley making sure to squeeze in one final joke about the situation as the crew signed off until next Fall.
“Cannot wait for next season. It’s gonna be a blast,” Johnson said.
“Wait … did Ernie say ‘blast’ or ‘last’?” Barkley cracked.
“It’s gonna be a *blast*. It’s gonna be a BLAST is what I said,” Johnson replied.
Ernie: "Cannot wait for next season. It's gonna be a blast."
Chuck: "Wait … did Ernie say 'blast' or 'last'?" 😭pic.twitter.com/zKKL3BFQmI
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) May 31, 2024
If next season is the final year of Inside The NBA , it will be a devastating loss for basketball fans as the show is not only considered to be the best basketball show but the best pre-and-post-game show in all of American sports.
Since premiering in 1989, Inside The NBA has been a staple of NBA culture and has won 19 Sports Emmy Awards in the process.
Longtime host Ernie Johnson joined the network in 1990, followed by Kenny Smith in 1998, Charles Barkley in the year 2000, and Shaquille O’Neal in 2011. Other members of the panel have been Magic Johnson, Chris Webber, and Reggie Miller.
If TNT does wind up losing the rights to the NBA (which seems more likely than not), Barkley has said he would consider hiring the Inside The NBA crew to his own production company to make a new show that he’d then license to one of the networks.
The 2024 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks begins on Thursday, June 6.