Rest In Peace Inside The NBA

After Game Four of the NBA Finals on Friday night, NBA legend Charles Barkley announced his the 2024-25 NBA season, which will be his 25th year on television, will be retiring.

Barkely's departure will mark the end of the most successful studio show in the history of sports television with TNT's "Inside The NBA" hosted by Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and another NBA all-time great Shaquille O'Neal.

Over the last few months, there have been then just rumours suggesting that Inside was going to be coming off the air after next season with TNT set to lose its NBA broadcasting rights after the 2024-25 campaign and with no deal in sight, it did not seem likely the show was going to be returning for a 26th season beginning in the fall of 2025.

With Barkley set to step aside, no matter what happens with Turner and the NBA, the show will never be the same with its superstar departing.

With cable television starting to phase out in light of the streaming wars, the likelihood that we have ever see a more entertaining or eye-capturing pre and post-game show is unlikely, to say the least.

I hope we all savour every Shaq and Chuck argument, every "EJ's Neato Stat of The Night, every "Shaqtin a Fool", every time Kenny runs to the board to breakdown plays, and every "Gone Fishin", just to name a few of the segments that made this show what it was. Luckily, we get the iconic group one more season until the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals.

I do not look forward to when the final buzzer sounds in that series eleven months from now because it will mark the end of one of the most iconic television shows in the history of TV.

Congrats on a great post-playing career Chuck, and to the group as a whole, thank you for entertaining us sports fans all these years.

The chemistry these four shared will never be duplicated, I truly believe that.

What a run fellas.