1. The NBA Finals, featuring the Spurs and Knicks, begin tonight on ABC, where it has aired since 2003.
There will be one important and significant change to ABC’s Finals coverage this season. For the first time ever, the iconic Inside the NBA and its cast—Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal—will handle pregame, halftime and postgame duties for the championship series.
For Inside the NBA to be around as long as it has and to become as popular and important as it has without ever being part of a Finals is almost hard to believe.
But after Warner Brothers Discovery lost the rights to NBA games in 2024, ESPN made a deal with WBD to license Inside the NBA. WBD still produces the show, but it airs on ESPN.
The unusual arrangement turned out to be a huge win for basketball fans because the iconic show will finally be showcased during the the NBA’s biggest series.
“I am so excited about that,” Barkley recently said about working the Finals on an episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina. “We were actually talking about it last week. It’s going to be awesome. The first time we’ve ever done the Finals. It’s gonna be exciting. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m not gonna lie. I’m excited for it. It’s gonna be awesome. We’re really excited about that. I can’t wait. I’m excited.”
Inside the NBA got off to a bumpy start on ESPN strictly based on scheduling. The content of the show has remained the same, but episodes were too infrequent in the early part of the season.
ESPN president Burke Magnus acknowledged that this week in an interview with Puck’s John Ourand.
“It has worked wonderfully,” Magnus told Ourand about the new arrangement. “The production crew at Turner and the talent have all been fantastic to work with. All we did was put the ESPN logo on the desk and let those guys do their thing. If I could change something, it’s really unrelated to how the show appears on-screen. I would like to spread the shows over more of the regular season. It’s quite back-loaded at this point—we didn’t really get going until Christmas Day. It’s been incredible in the postseason because they’re on basically every single night.”
The NBA has enjoyed solid ratings increases throughout the postseason and viewership is expected to be very strong for the Finals thanks to the New York market and Victor Wembanyama. Don’t discount the presence of Inside the NBA working the NBA Finals for the first time as a factor when big viewership numbers come in for the series.
2. Speaking of ratings, the NBA and NBC got great news regarding Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. The Spurs-Thunder game on Saturday drew 15.9 million viewers. Viewership for the game peaked at 22.2 million.
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) June 2, 2026
3. Just a pathetic and disgraceful job by the Indiana Fever revoking the credentials of beat writer Scott Agness. The Fever claimed they took away Agness’s credential, thus preventing him from doing his job properly, because of his reporting surrounding an injury to Caitlin Clark.
The only way a reporter should get a credential revoked is if they intentionally and deliberately lied. Agness did not do that here, as he explained in great detail.
An update for subscribers and Fever fans:https://t.co/Gbn5tqtLpS
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) June 2, 2026
4. This was a great and accurate line by veteran Guardians broadcaster Tom Hamilton on Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. appearing on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
Tom Hamilton on Jazz Chisholm:
— Jose (@GuardsBurner_) June 2, 2026
“He predicted the Yankees will win the World Series. He did that on the Jimmy Fallon show. Pretty amazing he got on the Jimmy Fallon show batting .239.” pic.twitter.com/JsxYx2McUz
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