Bill Simmons Critiques ESPN’s Potential Impact on ‘Inside the NBA’ Move

Bill Simmons is worried that ESPN will “f–k up” “Inside the NBA” when it starts airing the beloved NBA studio show next season. 

“Inside the NBA” wrapped up its stint on TNT this past Saturday, following the Knicks’ defeat to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, which ended their pursuit of an NBA championship.

The program is slated to transition to ESPN, and a former network employee recently voiced their concern that, without adjusting the format of its commercial breaks, the show could be negatively impacted.

“Unless there’s a complete overhaul of their commercial format, the show is likely to change, which will upset both the audience and Barkley along with his team. I believe it could turn out poorly,” Simmons commented on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “The only way things could avoid going south is if they alter their commercial strategy to allow for the extended segments necessary for the show to function effectively. They will need to modify their approach.”

“They just paid so much for the NBA that if they don’t do that and they do the same short, terrible segments that you’re about to see in the Finals where it’s like a one and a half minute halftime and it’s like a 20 minute pregame, they do that they’re going to f–k the show up and everybody’s going to be mad.”

Sports media news site Awful Announcing noted last year that NBA fans had panned the halftime show produced by ESPN for its incredibly short segments, with a majority of the program being made up of commercials. 

Warning: Graphic language

Simmons alleged that ESPN had “not cared for this entire century about this” issue with the commercial breaks and that “whoever is running ESPN” had simply “just cashed the checks from the commercials.” 

Details have started to emerge about ESPN’s plans for the show once it lands on the Disney-owned network’s airwaves. 

ESPN has no plans to change the show’s DNA and TNT will retain complete editorial control over the show, Front Office Sports reported Monday. 

ESPN will take a hands-off approach like they’ve done with Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee, and one Front Office Sports source blasted the speculation over what the network could try to do with “Inside the NBA.’ 

“Some of the speculation’s just nuts. ESPN has wanted Barkley and this show for 20 years. Now that they’ve got it, why would they change it?” the source said to Front Office Sports.