“It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.” When the new media rights deal became official, Charles Barkley criticized Adam Silver for not respecting fans. ESPN/ABC, NBCU, and Amazon Prime Video agreed to an 11-year contract worth $76 billion–meaning TNT is out of the picture. Even though there were some dark clouds over Inside the NBA’s future, it will now air on ESPN. Despite this good news, Chuck has some “concerns” for the new era.

It was on the latest podcast episode with Jimmy Trania where Barkley candidly spoke about this future. During the conversation, the host gave a hint about a potential schedule with ESPN, as he got the information from ESPN President Burke Magnus. “And what he had told me was basically you guys would be doing Saturdays because they have the ABC Saturday night thing. He said maybe some Sundays when it’s not on Saturday…” Until now, Charles Barkley never spoke about the exact date with ESPN, but he gave an update about TNT’s plans for the future.

“But also TNT want to do some stuff too. We’re going to do a pilot this week, to be honest with you. They want to do something because I guess they don’t want to pay us to do absolutely nothing to be honest with you.” As per the deal between TNT and ESPN, the former has full control of production, and the latter will air the content. So, the Inside the NBA crew is taping a pilot this week, despite no official confirmation about their schedule.

As Trania suggested, the potential show on ESPN could air mostly on Saturday and a few times on Sunday. That’s why Charles Barkley is not sure if that situation helps bring in the views. “We can’t show highlights and also what’s really going to be really interesting; we’re probably going to be going up against an NBA game. That’s something you have to factor in also. And listen, the public is not stupid. They’re not like, ‘Hey let’s turn off the NBA game and watch these four dummies talk about something else.‘”

The 76ers legend has a point; The current setup lets them talk about the game, which is why it’s a fan favorite. But Chuck believes that fans won’t tune in just to watch their show over regular season games. However, there has been a debate in the past about how Inside the NBA is so popular that most fans claim to watch just the show but not all the games. Even Trania echoed this sentiment. “But regular-season NBA people would probably watch you over the regular-season NBA games. If you got they’d watch you four over that.” Apart from viewership, Charles Barkley spoke about another potential issue.

There is a reason why Chuck is expecting this kind of response from the public. Since NBC, Amazon, and ESPN will be running some game or the other throughout the week. The NBA icon did his research and said, “NBC got Monday and Tuesday, and ESPN got Wednesday Friday, I think. Amazon got Thursday Saturday.” That’s why ESPN has yet to figure out an official schedule for the Inside the NBA team. Chuck called that “makes zero sense to me whatsoever.”

Charles Barkley has mixed emotions about the NBA commissioner’s role

As stated before, Chuck blasted the league commissioner over his role or lack of saving the Inside the NBA. But later on, even praised Adam Silver for securing the bag for the NBA’s future. “Because I love Adam Silver. I think he’s fantastic.” However, the TNT analyst firmly believed that the decision was not the right one for the fans.

The NBA denied TNT’s attempt to match Amazon’s 11-year structure. During the whole ordeal, the Inside the NBA cast and crew had zero communication about their future. “I also understand he works for that owners and the players. And, hey, this is a great deal for the owners and the players. Do I think it’s the best thing for the fans? No, I do not.” In fact, Carmelo Anthony also backed this statement and questioned Adam Silver’s role.

Even though Chuck believed that streaming is the future and the deal made sense, but still believed fans were at a net loss with the new media rights deal. With his future role with ESPN still in doubt, it makes sense why Barkley has concerns over this new collaboration.