Eastern Conference Finals will have Stan van Gundy join Reggie and first two games will even have Draymond ****ing Green. Yes, thank god TNT is gone!!!! You have such great talent and you choose SVG and then toxic ass Draymond….honestly they deserved to lose the rights.
Reading a Barkley interview is kind of awful. Sounds like a moron, which he kind of is. LOL @ TNT trying to do something themselves and no basketball highlights is probably better since I don’t want to hear them talking basketball anyway. Let them go full on stupid and just do these No Dunks type segments when they are on NBA TV. That would be at least funny.
https://frontofficesports.com/inside-inside-the-nba-transition-to-espn/ Once this year’s Pacers-Thunder Finals conclude, the brain trust in Bristol will gather to discuss their strategy for the 36-year-old program. Here’s what we’re hearing: •There will be an extensive postgame show, say sources. ESPN’s goal is to let the postgame segment run as long as it does now on TNT. As Bomani Jones noted on his eponymous show: “ESPN historically has not done postgame shows. If you’re not gonna do the Inside the NBA postgame show, you’re getting rid of the best part. It doesn’t seem like it will be a gratifying experience. But they also can’t put that on ABC. That would be preposterous.” •Inside the NBA will lead ESPN’s pregame and halftime programming. The show will air live during ABC/ESPN’s biggest events, including the NBA Finals, conference finals, and NBA playoffs. They’ll also be featured on opening week, Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1, and the final week of the season. ESPN’s own NBA Countdown will survive, but it will be strictly second-string. Simmons did say that ESPN might “**** the show up” by forcing Inside the NBA to do the “short, terrible” pregame/haltime segments that are a staple of Countdown. “Unless they completely change how they do commercials, the show is going to be different and people are going to be pissed,” warned Simmons. “And Barkley and those guys are going to be pissed. And I think it’s going to go badly.” •The cast is expected to stay together. With O’Neal signing a long-term extension paying him more than $15 million a year, the Beatles of Basketball TV are all under contract. All four will remain TNT employees, but they’re all expected to report for duty when the show is licensed to ESPN. The show will continue to be produced in the same Atlanta studio with the same behind-the-scenes crew. The only difference is that the set will bear ESPN branding rather than the TNT logo. •On Monday, Barkley told Dan Patrick that he expects to only work two seasons of the seven years left on his monster, 10-year, $210 million contract. “If they start trying to work me too much between ESPN and TNT, I’m just going to walk on home,” he said. Barkley is Barkley. He’s been talking about retirement for 10 years. But what do you know? The Round Mound of Rebound is suddenly speaking more positively about ESPN—a frequent target of his barbs—than ever before: “ESPN is the most famous sports brand ever. It’s going to be awesome working for them,” he told Patrick. •The devil is in the details when it comes to scheduling. ESPN will have to juggle its various shows and linear/digital media platforms to give Inside the NBA the high profile it deserves. For instance, if a featured NBA game is on ESPN, then postgame coverage probably just rolls over into Inside the NBA. But if the game airs on ABC, the broadcast network will likely shift into local news. So viewers will probably have to change channels to ESPN or ESPN2 to watch the Chuckster. •There’s also the question of how the show will coexist alongside Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter. Will Inside the NBA air on ESPN2 alongside Van Pelt’s SC on ESPN’s primary channel? Or will it start on ESPN, then shift to ESPN2 once Van Pelt goes on-air? That will be discussed after the Finals. My guess is ESPN will try to keep everything on the same channel. Thankfully, ESPN boasts more platforms than any other sports media company. The network is used to juggling properties between platforms. •Barkley broke some news on Patrick’s show Monday. He revealed TNT is working on what sounds like a general-interest sports show with some cast members from Inside the NBA. The network taped a pilot a month ago. But Barkley called it the “stupidest **** ever.” He doesn’t give the idea much of a chance since it would have to compete with live NBA games, said Barkley. “I’ll give TNT credit. They did say it was an awful pilot.”
Okay that’s actually cool if it works out that way, as in basically getting TNT to replace the even more horrible pre-halftime and post game coverage and conversation. Lesser of two evils at least, though still forced to listen to Donkey dick and Shaq on crack.
until Charles leaves. Right now they can just say **** it, but the second the crew is 1 short, ESPN is going to shove Malika Andrews and SAS cameos with 1093r02850^3 commercial breaks
It was actually nice to see and would welcome them over ESPN regular coverage any day, but that just tells you ESPN / Disney are an abomination. After watching our game and hearing Grant Hill & Eagle, to me it’s easy the much better commentary crew and it’s for the best ABC still has the Finals. I could not handle Reggie and that fat **** for 5-7 games IF we ever make the finals, which right now I feel is highly unlikely.
Okay, Prime is hands down the best presentation so far. Team specific intros - though short - with some DMX in their intros, minimal score bug, cool looking studio - with Olajuwon in the back and decent analysis and talk. The only thing that was odd was the first popup of the teams has some fabric squares with team colors, that didn’t make sense to me and a bit rushed. Also 4 guys along with 1 host is too much imo, but that’s alright.
