Charles Barkley and the future of ‘Inside the NBA,’ the fun of the Phillies, and other thoughts

First and final thoughts, some shallower than others …

The future of the best sports show on TV was thrown in doubt this week when Warner Bros. Discovery failed to reach a new media rights deal with the NBA. WBD owns TNT, which means it owns Inside the NBA, and no one knows yet where Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal might land once the current contract between the company and the league expires after next season.

Sure, that panel and the entertaining chemistry that its members share might end up finding a home on NBC or ESPN or another network. Still, there are no assurances that, in a new iteration, Inside the NBA will retain its charm. That’s not a slight against any of those four: Johnson, Smith, and O’Neal are terrific, and Barkley is sui generis. He’s that funny, that self-aware and self-deprecating, that raw and real. He’s the primary reason people dig the show. But any change to Inside the NBA’s winning formula threatens to dilute the product, and assuming the show survives and its cast remains intact, those in charge of it should understand all the elements that have gone into making it so magical.

Is Barkley the most important of those elements? Of course he is. His 2021 embrace of and exchange with Danny Rouhier — a Washington, D.C. talk-show host who does a dead-on impersonation of him — busted more guts than any sitcom or stand-up special of the last decade. But Barkley’s mere presence on a TV show doesn’t automatically guarantee the show will be a success. If that were the case, more people would have watched King Charles on CNN, and it would have lasted longer than a year. One of the biggest advantages that Inside the NBA has enjoyed over the 12 years that Barkley, Johnson, Smith, and O’Neal have been together is a factor that too many decision-makers in today’s media landscape don’t value enough: scarcity.

During the NBA regular season, Inside the NBA — with its core four — is on roughly once a week. That’s all. So relatively speaking, it’s appointment TV. Barkley and O’Neal aren’t screaming about Dak Prescott or LeBron James or the NFL schedule every morning Monday through Friday. People want to hear what the Inside the NBA panelists have to say because the panelists are fun and unpredictable and because people actually have to wait to hear what those panelists have to say.

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You can, in fact, have too much of a good thing — or what is perceived to be a good thing. Marvel learned that lesson. ESPN, in the wake of its coverage of Game 7 of Pacers-Knicks, is learning it now. The NFL might end up learning it down the road. It will be great if Inside the NBA survives the uncertainty over its future. It will be even better if, in surviving, it doesn’t fall victim to this same tendency toward overexposure. We love ya, Chuck, but a little absence makes the insights sharper and the laughs heartier.

If you consider yourself a Phillies fan, and if the words This is all fine and good, but what about October? or any derivation of that phrase has passed from your lips, please remain confined to the dank and lightless environs that you apparently prefer. This is what a great baseball season is supposed to be. Enjoy it. Live in the now.

The first rule of OTAs is: You do not talk about OTAs.

The second rule of OTAs is: You do not talk about OTAs.

I’m only half-kidding here. The organized team activities that the Eagles and other NFL teams have been holding are good for a few things. They’re helpful, for example, for getting a glimpse (a very, very, very slight glimpse) of how a team’s lineup might (might, might, might) shake out once the regular season begins … in more than three months. Oh, Cooper DeJean is in the slot. Interesting.

What they’re not good for is drawing any conclusions or offering any projections about how a particular player, especially a rookie, might perform once everything gets real. OTAs are barely practice. That through-a-needle’s-eye pass that the first-round pick made against the guy who might be a second-string cornerback — and who isn’t wearing pads — tells you absolutely nothing. Act and react accordingly.

» READ MORE: We’ve analyzed the Eagles’ 2024 schedule. Sorry, they’re going to lose every single game.

I’m in favor of more indifference. The healthy kind of indifference. The kind of indifference that allows you to separate what is truly noteworthy from what is just junk-food noise, that keeps your priorities in order, that helps you recognize or evaluate the credibility of a particular individual, that helps quell any knee-jerk outrage or offense.

Because I’ve said that, I think I can say this:

My God, people. He’s not a world leader. He’s just a kicker.