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Charles Barkley appears to clap back at Colin Cowherd over ESPN criticism: 'Shut the hell up'

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels01/24/26ChandlerVessels

Charles Barkley appeared to respond after FOX Sports radio host Colin Cowherd recently came after ESPN. On Friday’s episode of his show, Cowherd accused the network of intentionally keeping “Inside the NBA” off the air to appease NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Prior to this year, “Inside the NBA” — a halftime and postgame show hosted by Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson — was televised on TNT. The show originally aired on the network in 1989 and the current crew has been on the air together for the past 14 seasons.

However, with the NBA entering a new broadcasting agreement for the 2025-26 season that did not include TNT, ESPN took over as the new home for “Inside the NBA.” The show has appeared only six times this season, leading Cowherd to question whether the move to ESPN was contrived. The FOX radio host pointed to comments from Barkley in which he lamented the light workload during the first half of the season and theorized that Silver might be attempting to silence them for “making fun of the players.”

In Saturday’s edition of “Inside the NBA,” Barkley appeared to respond to those comments and defend ESPN. He stated that the schedule was decided in advance of the season and that there was no truth to claims that the league did not want the show on TV.

“There’s some fools on television …saying we were talking bad about the players so they made us work less. Shut the hell up,” Barkley said. “This was already scheduled. These guys are like, ‘Man, these guys, they’re gonna put them on the shelf because they don’t want them on TV.’ Man, y’all need to shut the hell up. This was already planned months and months ago. All I said was, I would’ve liked to work more.”

Smith interjected to point out that the schedule is loaded on the backend for the “Inside the NBA” crew, presumably to give them a chance to cover games that have more at stake. In February alone, the show will be aired six times, already matching the total from the first three months of the season.

The show will also air twice more this month on Wednesday and next Saturday as well as another six times in March and April. In the postseason, it will air multiple times as well, including during the NBA Finals.

That certainly doesn’t seem like the network or NBA are trying to silence the show, and it’s more likely that Smith’s explanation of covering the important games is the real reason for the backloaded schedule. “Inside the NBA” is one of the most beloved show in the league for fans, and it will continue to be a must-watch on days it is on.

Colin Cowherd suggests ESPN buried ‘Inside the NBA’ in deal with NBA

Cowherd’s comments came after an appearance from Barkley on The Dan Le Batard Show this month. He stated that he wished there were more chances for “Inside the NBA” to be on the air in the first half of the season.

“We’ve complained, we’ve only been on ESPN four times in three months,” Barkley told Le Batard. “I don’t like that at all. What I was talking about working all the time, because I love watching basketball – I’m not going to do all these damn shows. I’m not gonna be on ESPN One, Two, Three, Deportes, Nacho, Echo, whatever they call it. I’m not gonna be doing all that, but I wish we had been on more during the first half of the season.”

That prompted the line of questioning from Cowherd, who went into the theory that the way the crew often jokes around may have rubbed the NBA the wrong way. That’s when he made his accusation.

“ESPN buried that show,” Cowherd said. “ESPN has a great relationship with the NBA, and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll bring that show over. You won’t see it as much.’ Put it on the shelf a little bit. …It felt very, very big at one time, and now it’s invisible,” Cowherd continued. “I know there were people upstairs in the NBA office that didn’t like how they lampooned the league and some of the players. People upstairs didn’t love – they would say, ‘NFL shows don’t make fun of the players, why are we making fun of the players?’

“Charles is complaining; it feels obvious to me. You have these new deals, and there’s a lot of understandings that don’t have to be contractual. David Stern didn’t like when people were critical of the NBA either. They’re very sensitive in the NBA.”