Charles Barkley rips TNT after getting blindsided by ‘Inside the NBA’ moving to ESPN

For Charles Barkley, learning the new fate of “Inside the NBA” was as if he was a player who found out he had been traded when it was reported in the media.

On a Saturday night earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that TNT had struck a deal to license the iconic studio show to ESPN.

During a recent appearance on “The Bettor Angle” show with Kate Constable and Gabe Ramirez on the BetQL network, Barkley said he received no head’s up from his bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports that the move was in the works.

Charles Barkley pictured during a special live NBA On TNT Telecast at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 11, 2018. Damairs Carter/MediaPunch/IPx

“I’ll tell you what’s fun. They haven’t even told us we lost the NBA,” Barkley said, as covered by Awful Announcing.

“We have to hear it through the media. And even this thing with ABC/ESPN, I heard about it on the internet. Scott Van Pelt, Brian Windhorst, Elle Duncan, Bob Myers, all friends of mine who I really like a lot. They texted me welcoming me to the ESPN family. I’m like, what happened? TNT didn’t even have the courtesy.