"They Haven't Told Us How It's Going To Work" - Based On Everything Charles Barkley Is Saying About The New Inside The NBA, It Sounds Like A Complete Shitshow

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A few weeks ago, we got our first look at how ESPN would be handling Inside The NBA, and it was nothing short of a disaster. Each detail seemed to be worse than the last, whether it was the fact that after Opening Week, they weren't going to be on TV again until Christmas or the fact that ESPN might be limiting them to just 30 minutes, it all sounded awful.

My hope was that as time went on and more details came out, things wouldn't actually be that bad. Different, but not terrible. I mean, only an idiot would willingly ruin one of the best sports shows in television history….right? RIGHT?

Well, 3 weeks after that initial reporting, if you listen to Chuck, it sounds like things are going heading in a direction that might be even worse than we thought

Yup, this is my nightmare. When this whole transition was first announced, my biggest question was what the hell ESPN was going to do when it came to SVP's SportsCenter. I love SVP's SportsCenter. It's really the only SportsCenter worth watching these days (outside of Rich Eisen's throwback episode a few weeks ago), and it's a big part of the postgame experience. As a viewer, I don't exactly love the idea of changing that or pushing that out even later into the night, but if you're keeping SVP's slot where it is, what does that then mean for Inside The NBA?

As you can see, Chuck is wondering the same thing. And I'll tell you what, it sure as shit sounds like we're probably not going to get anything close to the same format like we've had on TNT for the last 20+ years where they just shoot the shit after games until they feel like calling it a night. That's always been when the best parts of Inside The NBA happen, so to potentially no longer have that be a part of the show, what the fuck guys? Considering none of us are getting any piece of those billions that were spent on that TV deal, this is some bullshit. 

Given the fact that the NBA season starts back up in around 7ish weeks, you'd think these details would be sorted out by now. If you wanted to maybe keep that information private in an effort not to ruin the show's chances before it starts, fine. But to not even tell Chuck and the guys what the plan is? I'm no TV executive, but that feels like the opposite of what should be done in this situation. Especially when it comes to such an iconic show like Inside The NBA. 

Could it be as simple as maybe moving Inside The NBA to ESPN2 or something on the nights where the games lead into SVP's SportsCenter? While that would be somewhat annoying, it'd be better than nothing I suppose. Call it Inside After Dark or whatever and let the fellas do their thing until the wee hours of the morning, like what we're used to. No filter, no time limit, just all the stuff that makes this show so entertaining. I dunno, I'm just spitballing here.

All I know is ESPN/TNT had ONE JOB, which was to not ruin the best show on television. The only thing that should change is the logo in the middle of the set from TNT to ESPN. That's it. Unfortunately, it feels like this is going to end up being even worse than we could have imagined, and frankly, that's annoying as hell.

So please, whoever the TV execs are who find themselves in charge of this transition, we as basketball fans are begging