1. It wasn’t quite goodbye. It was more like, see you later. But NBA fans still wanted to see how Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal would wrap up their TNT careers.

Saturday’s Inside the NBA, the final episode to air on TNT before the show moves to ESPN next season, drew 3.5 million viewers.

Just some perspective on how impressive that number is when you factor it that it aired well after 11 p.m. ET on a Saturday night:

- The Western Conference finals between the Thunder and Timberwolves averaged 5.5 million viewers.

- The final round of the Memorial on CBS on Sunday averaged 3.06 million viewers.

- Sunday’s Yankees-Dodgers game on ESPN drew 2.73 million viewers.

- The NHL’s Western Conference finals between the Oilers and Stars averaged 1.5 million viewers.

- The Panthers-Hurricanes Eastern Conference finals between the Panthers and Hurricanes averaged 1.4 million viewers.

2. When I had Charles Barkley on SI Media With Jimmy Traina in mid-April, he revealed that he was set to tape a pilot, along with Johnson, Smith and O’Neal, for TNT.

While Inside the NBA will air on ESPN next season, the four are still under contract with TNT and the network apparently wants to create some sort of sports show around the quartet.

Barkley shared the details of the pilot Wednesday with Dan Patrick, and they weren’t good.

“We taped a pilot about a month ago, and it was the stupidest s--- I’ve ever seen in my life,” Barkley said.

“If they’re being honest, we’re probably gonna work on ESPN one-third or half the time, but they’re trying to do something stupid at TNT, which is a stupid idea for a couple of reasons. No. 1, we won’t have basketball highlights. But also, we’re probably gonna be going up against an NBA game. And anybody who likes basketball ain’t gonna say, ‘Hey, you know what, let me turn off an NBA game that’s on Amazon, ESPN or NBC to go watch these four dudes sit around and talk about nothing.’

“It’s complicated. And like I said, we taped a pilot doing stupid stuff and it was just stupid stuff. I wouldn’t want to go on like that.”

3. The Yankees’s 7–3 win over the Dodgers on Sunday was ESPN’s most watched Sunday Night Baseball game since 2018.

4. Apparently Major League Baseball is fine with nobody watching its games because according to Sports Business Journal, the sport is set to sell more games to Apple TV.

5. And this right here is why so many NFL teams didn’t want to get into the Shedeur Sanders business.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast dropped Thursday morning. This week’s guest is The Athletic’s media reporter/columnist Andrew Marchand.

Topics discussed on the podcast: What does ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product mean for ESPN+?; who has done the better job hiring NBA talent for next season, NBC or Amazon?; Reggie Miller’s work calling Knicks-Pacers; how will Inside the NBA look on ESPN?; how will Caitlin Clark’s two-week absence due to injury affect Fever ratings?; NFL schedule release; Pablo Torre’s reporting on the Bill Belichick/girlfriend soap opera and much more.

Following Marchand, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss the Knicks-Pacers series, an old 30 for 30 episode that I recently watched, Ben Stiller vs. Pat McAfee and the best Stiller movies.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: On this date in 2018, HBO’s Succession aired its first episode.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Inside the NBA’ Draws Big Viewership for Final Show on TNT.

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