The Initial Details Around Inside The NBA On ESPN Are Out And It Sounds Like A Disaster

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Once the news about the NBA’s new TV deal were announced, outside of the collective annoyance that we all would now have to deal with a billion different streaming services just to watch games, the most important part of these changes revolved around how ESPN would handle Inside The NBA.

As a fan, I’ll deal with Amazon, I’ll download Peacock or whatever the fuck, just don’t screw up the greatest sports show on television. That’s all myself and many basketball fans asked for. Whatever you do, don’t mess up a great thing.

How it was all going to work now that the fellas were moving from TNT where they were allowed to basically do and say whatever they wanted was anyone’s guess, and while we still don’t know for sure the early details around how ESPN is planning to handle the show are coming out and well…..

“Inside” generally ran for about 50 minutes in recent years, rarely dipping below the 40 minute mark, but the 30 minute window may well be a placeholder rather than an expectation.

“Inside” is not currently listed as taking place the following night, when the network’s second doubleheader of the season is scheduled to lead into a Scott Van Pelt-hosted SportsCenter.

The TNT-produced “NBA Tip-Off” is scheduled to precede ESPN’s coverage on both nights.

The advance schedule is of course subject to change, but offers some clues as to how ESPN will manage “Inside” and the Van Pelt SportsCenter, which has become the network’s postgame show of record.

After the Opening Week of the season, TNT’s NBA studio show is not set to take place again until Christmas Day.

God dammit. You had one job ESPN. You had ONE JOB. Just leave this shit alone and keep everything the same, just show it on your network. I understand that things are still fluid and nothing is technically set in stone blah blah blah. But what I will say is I don’t love how it appears to be trending. For starters, part of what made Inside The NBA so great is it felt like they never had a time limit. They simply turned on the cameras and let Chuck and the guys cook. If they went late into the morning, so what? That was always a big question for me seeing as how SVP owns the postgame spot on ESPN. So if you’re telling me now Inside The NBA isn’t going to be able to shoot the shit until they feel they’re ready to call it a night, I don’t love that.

And maybe I missed the memo, but no Inside The NBA until Christmas following the opening week? What the shit is that? You’re telling me we only get this show a handful of times all year? That’s bullshit. My body is conditioned to watch that program every week for 8 months. It’s partly what makes following the season so fun, and now that’s over? Gross. 

Deep down I think we all knew that when this announcement was first made that it was the death of something we all loved, and maybe I’m naive because I was holding out hope that this time it would be different because this stinks. The same way we’re all collectively worried about ESPN ruining RedZone, that nit feels inevitable too.

Here’s to hoping that by the time we get to October things will actually be a little different than these early reports, because at the end of the day it’s us the fans who suffer. I’m not getting any of that $76B and my guess is you aren’t either. All we had was the hope that Inside The NBA wouldn’t change and now we know why Chuck said this was the dumbest thing ever a few months ago. He pretty much nailed it.