{"id":880112,"date":"2026-09-04T20:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880112\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T20:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T20:30:17","slug":"charles-barkley-says-this-is-final-season-for-him-and-ernie-johnson-on-inside-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880112\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley says this is final season for him and Ernie Johnson on \u2018Inside the NBA\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charles<\/p>\n

Of the upcoming season on \u201cInside the NBA,\u201d Charles Barkley said, \u201cUnless Ernie (Johnson) changes his mind, next year is my last year, 100 percent.\u201d Mark J. Rebilas \/ IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

By The Athletic NBA Staff<\/p>\n

Sept. 4, 2026 Updated 4:23 pm EDT<\/p>\n

The 2026-27 NBA season will be Charles Barkley\u2019s final season on \u201cInside the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Barkley said on an episode of \u201cThe Bill Simmons Podcast\u201d<\/a>\u00a0released Thursday that the next season of \u201cInside the NBA\u201d would be the last one for both him and host Ernie Johnson.<\/p>\n

Barkley told Simmons that Johnson asked him to stay for two more years before last season, as \u201cInside the NBA\u201d was moving from TNT to ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018I love you, man. You\u2019re the best. I\u2019ll stay,\u2019\u201d Barkley said. \u201cSo right now, unless Ernie changes his mind, next year is my last year, 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley, 63, said he intended to retire at 60 but was convinced to stay while the show was negotiating a new deal. Then, when TNT lost NBA broadcast rights and ESPN acquired the license to \u201cInside,\u201d Barkley said he decided to return to the show so that the off-camera staff could retain their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love the people. I\u2019ve been with them for 26, 27 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The popular show, which also features Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Kenny Smith, debuted in 1989. Johnson became the host the next year, and Barkley joined the show in 2000. The broadcast schedule for the upcoming NBA season has not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Sep 4, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of the upcoming season on \u201cInside the NBA,\u201d Charles Barkley said, \u201cUnless Ernie (Johnson) changes his mind, next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85,3276],"class_list":["post-880112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}