On May 31, 2025, we watched the iconic Inside the NBA crew take their final bow on TNT after a 35-year run. Ernie, Kenny, Shaq, and Charles signed off as the NBA’s new $76 billion media deal shifted rights to ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. But the chatter around this shake-up had been swirling since 2024. While Charles Barkley spent months blasting TNT for failing to land the deal and took a few shots at ESPN’s work culture along the way, Shaquille O’Neal quietly secured the best of both worlds.

He kept one hand on TNT and the other on ESPN. 

Variety dropped the surprise update that Shaq isn’t done with TNT just yet. He’s slipping back behind the mic, but this time, not to roast players or lob sneaky NBA jabs. Instead, he’s joining a superstar judging panel for Dunkman, a new six-episode reality dunk competition airing in December across Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, truTV, and HBO Max. He’ll be sizing up high-flyers alongside Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, Mac McClung, and Chris Webber.

In Dunkman, 40 big-time dunkers from every corner of the world will battle it out for a $200,000 prize, and sure, the format isn’t exactly a plot twist. But the real storyline is how TNT Sports keeps carving out clever little lanes to keep Shaq in the family. 

This show simply gets added to the Big Fella’s already packed media toolbox, right next to all those commercials he casually dominates, from The General to anything else that needs a giant personality. All of it rolls right back to that tidy $15 million deal keeping Shaq everywhere at once.

Back in February, Shaquille O’Neal quietly locked in his future with TNT Sports, signing a new deal worth over $15 million per year. He’s been part of Inside the NBA since 2011, helping turn the show into a cultural staple, and even with offers from ESPN and Amazon floating around, he chose to stay put.

It matches everything he said last year on The OGs podcast, where he made it clear just how much that crew means to him. “In a perfect world, I would love for us to stay together forever, but it’s in the hands of the powers right now,” he said. “But this last year is gonna be a phenomenal year, you know Chuck is gonna go crazy, I’m gonna go crazy.”

But Shaq never really disconnected from TNT at all. Even though Inside the NBA now airs on ESPN, the show is still produced by TNT’s team. So the pipes, the crew, the culture? Still Turner. And Turner is doing everything possible to keep its old stars circling the orbit. Look at Dunkman itself: it’s hosted by Adam Lefkoe, a TNT commentator who’s worked with Shaq for years.

The series kicks off December 4 with back-to-back episodes at 7 and 8 p.m., and follows the same format for the next two weeks. TNT may have lost the NBA rights, but they’re keeping their roster close. Which brings us to the elephant in the locker room: Where’s Chuck? Charles Barkley signed a massive extension back in 2022, about $21 million annually, that is still active today. So technically, he could’ve joined Shaq on the Dunkman judging panel without blinking.

Yet his name is nowhere on the lineup. Is he still irritated with TNT for missing out on the NBA deal?

Mad, not gone: Chuck’s TNT ultimatum

Back in 2022, Charles Barkley was locked in for the long haul with a massive 10-year, $210 million deal at TNT. But the moment the league’s new media rights deal pushed the show toward ESPN, Chuck made it crystal clear he wasn’t smiling through the transition. He laid it out bluntly: “These people I work with, they screwed this thing up—clearly…NT just sucks, to be honest with you. They made this deal, and they haven’t told us where we’re gonna work. They haven’t told us how it’s going to work.” 

He even gave TNT a straight-up ultimatum: “Turner has to come to me ASAP, and they have to guarantee my whole thing, or they can offer me a pay cut, which there is no chance of that happening, and I’ll be (a) free agent.” Naturally, the chatter about Barkley retiring from the media world began swirling, especially since his dislike for ESPN was never exactly hidden.

He revealed that ESPN hadn’t clarified how much freedom he, Shaq, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith would have on the new platform. “After the game, we have conversations and have fun,” he said. “Are they going to say, ‘You guys got three minutes, five minutes, 15, 30, 45,’ or are we going straight to SportsCenter? They haven’t given us an answer whatsoever.”

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On the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, Barkley admitted he wasn’t thrilled about splitting duties between ESPN and TNT if the shuffle forced it. He didn’t want extra work, a complicated schedule, or to be stretched too thin; he just wanted the freedom to do his thing without the headache.

But in the end, “My heart is always and will be at Turner Sports,” proved he wasn’t going anywhere. After all the frustration, threats, ESPN headaches, and free agency chatter, Chuck did what Chuck always does: followed his gut. And just like that, he returned to TNT, the place he’s always called home.