While being on TNT, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley took constant shots at the rival network. Be it punching Kendrick Perkins’ photo or trading war of words with Stephen A. Smith. The Inside the NBA gang has never backed down, and they are here to set the record straight about their absence in the first half of the season.

Shaq explained the rocky 2025-26 transition of Inside the NBA from TNT to ESPN and ABC under an 11-year deal. “It’s pretty much the same.” The difference he shared was that “we’re not working as much early on,” but guarantees fans will hear from them soon.

“But you know, come time to the playoffs, you’ll definitely be hearing from the big dogs. Right now, it’s about five or six other entities out there, and a lot of people have stuff to stay,” Shaquille O’Neal exclusively told ClutchPoints. “But when the playoffs come, and you watch the playoff game, then you will definitely hear from the experts.”

TNT Sports in Atlanta is still producing the show, but there has been a scheduling shift. After decades as a weekly ritual, they appeared only a handful of times in the first half of the regular season. That’s a drastic change for the viewers and for Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal. The Lakers legend was the last to join the quartet during the 2011-2012 NBA season and is currently earning $15 million a year.

For the 2025-26 NBA season, it moved to ESPN for the first time, and Charles Barkley was quick to air his grievance. Last week, Barkley said on The Dan Le Batard Show that Inside the NBA’s transition “has been great.” However, he did complain about having too light a workload after spending more than a year warning ESPN not to work him too hard.

“We’ve complained,” Barkley said. “We did like the first two weeks, we were off all of December until Christmas, and we’re off all of January until now. I don’t like that at all.” Despite all the complaints, Chuck set the record straight about the future of the show.

Barkley echoes Shaquille O’Neal’s sentiments

After Sir Charles’ initial complaints, Colin Cowherd’s reports only increased the problem. “ESPN buried that show,” Cowherd said on his FS1 and Fox Sports Radio show. “ESPN has a great relationship with the NBA, and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll bring that show over. You won’t see it as much.’ Put it on the shelf a little bit.” Charles Barkley is on a 10-year, $210 million contract. He even walked away from an additional $100 million from Amazon and NBC to keep the Inside Crew together.

So, the 76ers legend wasn’t letting any report spoil his relationship with ESPN. “Can I look at this camera right here?” said Barkley, addressing it to Cowherd. “There are some fools at home. Well, on the internet. They’re at home now. Saying that we were talking bad about the players, so they (ESPN) made us work less. Shut the hell up. Shut the hell up.”

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Later, Chuck also clarified that those limited dates were already communicated and scheduled. He put those conspiracy theories to rest: “All I said was I would like to work more.” As Shaquille O’Neal said, the fans can expect a more consistent run of episodes leading into nightly coverage for the second half of the regular season. The show returned on Saturday, January 24, with 14 future weekend-heavy episode dates already locked in.