Stephen A's Take: Stephen A reacts to the legendary TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ moving to ESPN.
The Stephen A. Smith Show
Stephen A. Smith and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
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Summary
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:07.7 | I got to get to another story that made headlines throughout the season that came to an epic |
| 0:11.2 | conclusion on Saturday night in Indianapolis. |
| 0:13.4 | And that's the NBA basketball on TNT inside the NBA on TNT. |
| 0:17.1 | Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O'Neill, Shaq Diesel, along with the live |
| 0:21.5 | event team broadcast their final game Saturday on TNT. |
| 0:24.6 | It was the end of a 35-year run of basketball on TNT. |
| 0:28.6 | However, inside the NBA will carry on next season with ESPN. |
| 0:33.4 | ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro came up with the idea to obtain the rights to inside the NBA |
| 0:37.3 | and put it on the air as is. |
| 0:39.2 | So next season and going forward, inside the NBA will continue to be produced by TNT sports. |
| 0:44.8 | And listen, I get the nostalgia. I get the affection that you have for TNT. |
| 0:51.7 | Listen, they're an institution. We love Ernie Johnson. |
| 0:56.2 | He's the institution, and the fellas are the fellas. |
| 0:59.6 | But I was so happy Saturday night that they sounded off the way that they did, pay homage to all the people that they worked with, all the lives that they touched. |
| 1:07.9 | It's been the best basketball show on television. |
| 1:10.6 | There is no debate about that. |
| 1:12.1 | These guys are phenomenal. All of them are friends of mine. So I couldn't be happier that they're |
| 1:16.6 | coming over to ESPN. But it is important to note that they're coming over to ESPN. Just the channel. |
| 1:23.6 | The same crew, the same production team, the same studio they do it from, the show is theirs. |
| 1:30.6 | It's just going to A on ESPN instead of TNT. |
| 1:33.9 | And so while everybody was quick to write the epitaph of the show, on TNT is the big deal for them because they had, Ernie Johnson's case a damn near 40 year relationship |
... |
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