NBA
Bill Simmons is convinced that ESPN will ‘f— up’ new Inside the NBA show
Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.
All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated03 Jun 2025
Bill Simmons knows a thing or two on how ESPN handles their business, and has recently expressed his worries over how they might deal with their new show Inside the NBA, after TNT lost their media rights to the basketball league. His legendary show also had its final episode on the network and will also make transition.
The host of the popular program is sure that his former employer will destroy the show. “I think ESPN is gonna f— the show up. I think they’re gonna f— the show up,” Bill said. “Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is gonna to be different and people are going to be pissed.”
In the latest episode of his podcast, he continued to share his vision. “And Barkley and those guys are going to be pissed, and I think it’s gonna go badly,” Simmons shared, knowing that ESPN will need to change their commercial structure to allow longer segments.
Even though TNT lost their media rights to broadcast the basketball league starting the 2025-26 campaign, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley will carry on covering the NBA on ESPN. After last Thursday’s Game 5, Shaq showed plenty of enthusiasm towards the future.
Just as they were signalling off what could be their final pregame episode, the Lakers icon promised viewers that the show will overcome expectations next season. “Yes, it is the ending of Inside the NBA on TNT,” said Shaq at the Madison Square Garden. “But it’s the new beginning for us.”
“I’m glad we’re still together on whatever network we go to, and whatever network we comin’ to, we’re bringing the pain. I’m just letting you know right now. I know everybody’s sad, ‘Oh it ain’t gonna be the show,’ the show is still here baby. You can never kill the four horseman,” the Hall of Famer said.
Even though ESPN has stated many times that Inside the NBA won’t change much for this upcoming campaign, not everyone is too happy about this. One of them is none other than star of the show Kenny Smith, who is convinced that the program will definitely turn out different.
