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After 35 seasons, Inside the NBA is now over after the conclusion of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Though it may be the end, Ernie Johnson, Shaq, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley will still be on your televisions, but they'll be on ESPN starting next season. Some don't seem to be fans of the move, and Bill Simmons has a feeling things will not go well with the transition.
“ESPN is gonna f— the show up,” Simmons said on The Ringer. “Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is gonna be different and people are gonna be pissed, and Barkley and those guys are gonna be pissed, and I think it’s gonna go badly.
“The only way it doesn't go badly is if they do the commercials, and they give them that lengthy segment that you need to have that show work. They’re gonna have to change how they do it.
“They just paid so much for the NBA that if they don’t do that and they do the same short, terrible segments that you’re about to see in the Finals, where it’s like a one-and-a-half-minute halftime and it’s like a 20-minute pregame, if they do that, they’re gonna f— the show up and everybody’s gonna be mad.
“If they mess with any piece of this, everyone’s gonna be mad, and that’s the part that I can’t wait to watch. Even like little insignificant stuff, if we feel like it’s different in any way, people would be mad.”
Will ESPN make drastic changes to Inside the NBA?
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Inside the NBA was full of jokes and laughter while also featuring basketball analysts on some of the league's biggest games. It's uncertain how things will look when they transition to ESPN, but there's a chance things just won't be the same.
On Inside the NBA, the crew was able to say some things that were over the top at times, and with ESPN, Disney may be really strict about what they can and can't say.
Hopefully, the crew will still have a good time, and they're able to entertain the crowd while still talking basketball. On the last segment on TNT, Shaq made it clear what he plans on doing when he arrives at ESPN.
“Even though the name changes, the engine stays the same,” Shaq said. “To that new network we're coming to [ESPN], we're not coming to ‘F' around. And since it's the last show, I'll say it: We're not coming to f— around. We're kicking a–; we're taking names; we're taking over.”
