Charles Barkley has not been a fan of how TNT has handled things with ESPN, since the NBA’s new television deal has gone into effect. The iconic Inside the NBA show will return on ESPN, with TNT being in full control.
Related: Charles Barkley slams TNT & ESPN as ‘Inside the NBA’ future looks murky
Still, things behind the scenes haven’t been smooth sailing. This is why Barkley has been critical of the company. Over the summer Barkley spoke about his feelings towards TNT, saying, “TNT just sucks, to be honest with you.”
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The CEO of TNT, Luis Silberwasser, recently spoke about Barkley’s comments, stating that he doesn’t mind them.
“Charles is Charles,” Silberwasser said. “I think he is the personality that he is because of the way that he in many ways expresses what comes to his mind.
“It is one of the reasons why he’s so good at the end of the day, right? I don’t take things that he says very personally. I mean, I think we would be on medication if every time he says something like that we have to take it personally.
“At the end of the day, you have to sort of step back a little bit and think about the change that is happening,” Silberwasser continued. “We understand sort of the need for everything to be sort of the same as it was before. But it’s not going to be the same as it was before in many ways, right? We’re producing the show for ESPN.
“What I can guarantee everybody is that it’s going to be the same show. It’s going to be the same values and the same DNA that the show had before. It’s going to be [on] a different network.”
Ultimately, fans just want the show to remain the same as it has always been. Silberwasser claims it will be, but how things are going, it’s hard to believe it completely.
