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Ernie Johnson believes the NBA would benefit from shortening the regular season below 82 games. Johnson is on his farewell tour as he announced last month that this would be his final season on the iconic Inside the NBA studio program after 37 years. He spoke with Front Office Sports’s Baker Machado last week on a variety of topics, including what he sees for the future of Inside the NBA without him, how ESPN/ABC have handled the program, and why he thinks the season could stand to shed a few games. “If I were gonna do one thing, maybe I would reduce the schedule by a few games, so it’s not 82,” Johnson said when asked about the current state of the league and what changes he would make. “Here we are a week into the season and there’s so many stars who are out right now. That’s the concern. It’s like, OK, so Anthony Edwards isn’t gonna play for a while. OK, so Kawhi Leonard’s out for a while. Look what happened in OKC.”
For Monday night’s game against the Cavaliers, the Thunder have already listed six players as being out: Alex Caruso, Chet Holmgren, Thomas Sorber, Nikola Topic, Cason Wallace, and Jalen Williams. “Injuries are gonna happen, but part of it’s like, you know, the wear and tear on these guys—maybe you need to reduce that a little bit,” Johnson continued. “The talent you see in the league has never been higher. … Just in terms of watching the guys at the height of their powers, I love the product.”
Johnson reiterated a comment similar to the one that he made on Front Office Sports Tonight about hoping Inside the NBA endures without him and Charles Barkley, who has also alluded several times to the idea that this will be his last season on the show. “Sure, there could always be Inside the NBA. It would be different,” Johnson told Machado. “What I would hope is that as the years go by, it doesn’t have to be the exact same show. It can just morph into something else. … I love those guys and wish nothing but the best for the show as it continues in whatever form that takes.”
Johnson also spoke of the “seamless” transition the show made to ESPN and ABC last year after TNT lost the NBA rights, and ESPN licensed the program in exchange for a package of Big 12 football and basketball games. “That was our concern, in all honesty, when this change was gonna be made. I said, ‘Are we still gonna be able to be Inside the NBA?’ And this is total honesty: It was seamless,” Johnson said. “The folks at ESPN have been, [and] continue to be, great.” He continued, “They’ve let our show continue the way we do it. We’ve got the same producer, we’ve got the same studio crew, we’ve got the same graphics folks, we got the same announcer. It’s us continuing to do the show in Atlanta’s Studio J. It’s just, the logo is different. It’s on ESPN, or it’s on ABC. They’ve been tremendous partners to be with. I’m just glad that we could continue the show. It would’ve been very strange to just cold turkey stop doing the NBA.”
Kristian Winfield: Mike Brown says he doesn’t watch a lot of basketball shows but wants to shoutout Ernie Johnson: “Just from afar, Ernie seems like he’s a big-time human being… he will be sorely missed… I know from a coaching standpoint, he’ll be missed in that regard as well.”
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It was a day that was inevitably going to come, but it still hit Charles Barkley like a ton of bricks. “Inside the NBA” host Ernie Johnson announced earlier Wednesday that he will be departing the show following this season, 37 years after he joined the program. Barkley, who has been an integral part of the beloved basketball show for over two decades, paid tribute to Johnson, 70, on Wednesday’s iteration. Fighting back tears, the 63-year-old Barkley, finally collecting himself, spoke to what Johnson meant to him and the show as a whole. “That was tough,” Barkley said. “We knew the day was coming. Still tough. Been here for 26, 27 years and it’s been an honor and a privilege to work with you all this time, and Kenny [Smith] and Shaq [Shaquille O’Neal], and the amazing people behind the scenes. Nothing like it to be able to dribble a stupid basketball and get rich and famous, and then come here and get paid to watch the best players in the world. … You get paid to do it. We’d watch anyway. And so many people at, you know, Turner, WBD, and now I guess we Skydance. But it’s been an amazing journey. You’ve been our leader — our unquestionable leader.
Ernie Johnson spoke openly about his cancer diagnoses. He spoke about the tribulations of his son Michael, who suffered from Duchenne muscular dystrophy and died in 2021 at 33. He, Barkley and Smith were there to console O’Neal in 2020 after the death of Kobe Bryant, who was one of nine people aboard a helicopter flying to a basketball tournament in Newbury Park, Calif. Bryant’s daughter Gianna was on the helicopter with him. Johnson spoke eloquently at the funeral of Craig Sager, the brilliant sideline reporter for Turner’s NBA coverage, who died of leukemia in 2016. Wednesday, Johnson, now 70, spoke alone. “It’s just time,” he said, putting his “brothers,” as he put it, out front for praise. The long hours preparing for every show, along with his recovery from bypass surgery 14 months ago, told him he had to take some things off his plate. He will still do the NCAA basketball tournament for TNT and CBS and said he’ll lean into his production company, 32 Bowties, which will tell, as he put it, “feel-good” stories about sports.
Shaquille O’Neal was the first member of the cast to confide in Johnson, and he told him he grew up watching him on TV as a kid and thanked him for “the great run,” while also revealing he didn’t know something personal about Johnson. His age. “I never thought this day would come. I didn’t even know you were 70,” O’Neal said. “Makes sense now.” O’Neal left Johnson laughing during the pregame show and then started talking to him about when he found out about his retirement and expressed his gratitude for working with him for the last 14 years. “I heard the news today like everyone else and listening to what everyone’s saying about ‘What’s going to happen next?’ You know we’re not too worried about what’s going to happen next,” O’Neal said. “What’s happening now is we’re still here, and we’re gonna have a great year.”
NBA Communications: “Few people have shaped the way fans experience the NBA as profoundly as Ernie Johnson. His brilliance as a broadcaster is matched by his character, compassion and generosity, which have been evident throughout his 37 years as host of ‘Inside the NBA.’ We are grateful for Ernie’s extraordinary impact on our league and look forward to celebrating him during his final season.” – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
Draymond Green Show: Draymond reacts to Ernie Johnson's retirement "Having an opportunity to work with Ernie on the set with those guys and I say this with all due respect, (Ernie) is the best point guard I've ever played with and that's no disrespect to the great Steph Curry... Ernie Johnson on a set is as incredible as they come... this guy is amazing and so I tip my cap to him heading into his last year."
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Charles Barkley on Bam Adebayo: I like him a lot as a person. I think he represents everything that's good about the game. There was clearly some things about that game I did not like: The fouling, just giving him the ball every single time... Ernie Johnson: He says if you want to blame somebody, blame Brian Keefe, the Wizards head coach. He said he shouldn't have waited till I had 70 to start throwing another guy at me. Barkley: Yeah, but like I say, Bam, great accomplishment. People going to have a debate, but I'm never going to say anything bad about Bam cuz I got love and respect for that guy. He represents everything good about the NBA.