Charles Barkley Jokes That ‘We Gotta Go Back to Kissing A**’ After ESPN Reaches Deal to Air TNT’s Inside the NBA

Charles Barkley took a subtle shot at ESPN on Tuesday after the news that the network will air TNT’s hit show Inside the NBA starting next season.

Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of TNT — was left out of the NBA’s new media rights deal. Set to go into effect at the start of the 2025-26 season, the contract includes ESPN/ABC, Amazon, and NBC. For NBA fans, this news meant the likely end of Inside the NBA, TNT’s Emmy Award-winning show featuring Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson.

WBD, however, claimed it had matching rights that the NBA did not honor and decided to file a lawsuit against the league. As a result of that lawsuit, TNT will license the show to ESPN/ABC next season. It will continue to be produced by TNT.

On Tuesday night’s episode of the show, Barkley hinted at the new deal by implying the Inside the NBA crew now had to behave.

“Kenny, 12:30,” Barkley said in reference to the end of the episode. “Times have changed, Kenny. We gotta go back to kissing ass.”

Prior to this latest development, Barkley freely joked about his impending unemployment on air. When he claimed during one episode that he was leaving by 1 a.m. even if the show ran late, he boldly asked, “What are they gonna do, fire us?”

Barkley has also been critical of ESPN’s treatment of its on-air talent. Years ago, he claimed he wouldn’t join the network because they would work him “like a dog.” He then joked that ESPN forces talent to appear on all of their networks — including the Spanish-language network ESPN Deportes.

Watch above via TNT.