“Inside the NBA” deserves its own documentary.
The best basketball analysis show is on TNT and captained by former Carolina great Kenny Smith. In an industry that has so many cable networks and so many talking heads trying to scream a word in edgewise, this show is truly unique.
Kenny Smith is the smartest guy at the anchor desk, where the four men spread apart separated by plexiglass panels, left over from COVID. Smith plays a true point guard in the Dean Smith tradition. Ernie Johnson is the host, but the Jet controls the narrative like he did on the court for the Tar Heels, telling his fellow former NBA stars when they are wrong, which is often.
Why Smith, a two-time NBA champion, is the only one allowed to go to the big video board to analyze plays is probably because he’s the only one on the set who can truly analyze them. The banter is much louder than the explanations, but somehow they still tell you what happened in the game and, in their opinions, what should have happened.
Shaquille O’Neal is probably the second smartest man on the set, but Charles Barkley talks more and louder than the big 7-footer who has four NBA rings compared to zero for Sir Charles.
Wednesday night, they argued over how Milwaukee allowed Trae Young, perhaps the most underrated player in the NBA, to score 48 points in the Atlanta Hawks’ upset of the Bucks in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Atlanta used to be the graveyard of pro basketball, but former NC State star Nate McMillan became their head coach at mid-season and has led them to a surprising run in the playoffs and upsets over the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets and into the Conference Finals against the favored Bucks.
But this pre-game, half-time and post-game show is so unique that TNT has produced and is airing its own four-part documentary, covering its wacky 30 years on the air.
By being completely themselves, the current cast combines for a certain chemistry that is unmatchable on the rest of sports TV, regardless of how hard everyone else tries. And do they ever try.
Photo via NBA on TNT.
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