Here we go again. And maybe for the last time.
Charles Barkley, 63, has put another timeline on the end of his “Inside the NBA” run, but he insists that not only will he be leaving, but Ernie Johnson may be departing with him.
Barkley said during a recent appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that he expects the upcoming 2026-27 NBA season to be his last on “Inside the NBA,” adding that Johnson will be joining him in retirement.
“Me and Ernie are a package deal,” Barkley said. “So right now, unless Ernie changes his mind, next year is my last year, 100 percent.”
Johnson, 70, has not publicly announced his retirement, making Barkley’s revelation with Simmons particularly notable.
This isn’t the first time Barkley hinted at leaving the show, although it came under different circumstances last time.
As the future felt uncertain for “Inside the NBA,” Barkley indicated that the 2024-25 NBA season would be the end for him. It was also the end of the NBA on TNT, with the channel heading toward missing out on the league’s new media rights deal.
“I told TNT I was going to retire at 60. And they were like, ‘Oh, he’s full of s–t. He’s not gonna retire,’” Barkley recalled to Simmons.
“So we come up, I said, ‘Hey guys, it’s my last year.’ They’re like, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘I told y’all six years ago I was gonna retire at 60.’ They’re like, ‘You were serious?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I was serious.’ Then they said to me, ‘Do us a favor. Stay two more years, ’til we get the new deal.’ I talked it over with my friends. I said, ‘OK, I’ll tell you what. I’ll stay ’til 62,’ which was last year … little did I know these f–king idiots was gonna lose the NBA,” he added.
ESPN eventually added the show to its lineup, keeping Barkley and Johnson together alongside co-hosts Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith and the same production crew.
Barkley said Johnson called him after TNT lost its NBA rights and asked him to stay, in part so the show’s longtime behind-the-scenes employees could remain employed.
“The only reason I stayed is so everybody could keep their job behind the scenes,” Barkley told Simmons, explaining that he has worked with many members of the staff for more than 25 years, a point he has made on numerous occasions.
Barkley has also noted that he met with NBC and Amazon after TNT lost the NBA, with NBC offering him more money than he was making at Turner.
Johnson has hosted “Inside the NBA” since 1990, while Barkley joined the program in 2000.
