When the new media network partners took over this season, NBC and Amazon Prime brought in X's & O's to help fans understand the game.
Even ESPN bought into the idea, except for Charles Barkley and his Inside the NBA crew.
The quarter, including Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson, has generally used their chemistry to keep fans glued to their televisions.
Sometimes, Smith goes to the giant screen to explain some plays, but they do not go overboard with it. On the contrary, NBC and NBA on Prime in particular spend quite a bit of time explaining plays and schemes.
The latter have followed that trend into their WNBA coverage that started this season. For a network spending billions to get a slot, they must have enough evidence that fans enjoy those X's and O's sessions.
This form of analysis was made popular by JJ Redick and LeBron James in the early days of their podcast. Now, fans are criticizing Charles Barkley and his crew for not hopping on the trend.
We want people to have fun. We're trying to entertain people… How many people actually know enough about basketball for us to X-and-O them from 7 to 2 in the morning?… I want people to have fun watching basketball. Period.
Charles Barkley told SIThis was the Hall of Famer's response when host Jimmy Traina asked him about it. Barkley is clear that the time slot they have, it makes no sense to dive into the boring side of basketball. That is why Inside the NBA focuses on the entertainment factor.
Since Charles Barkley has no problem if fans are not happy with his Inside the NBA crew not diving into the X's and O's. Rather, he believes the fans are facing a bigger problem after the new media rights deal came into effect.
I think Adam Silver has to get a hold of this thing. I think the games are too disjointed right now. NBC, Peacock, Amazon, I think we have disrespected the fans. They don't know when the games are on. I just think that's really unfair to the fans.
Charles Barkley saidThe 63-year-old former forward referenced his own experience where he has had to constantly go on to the NBA app to figure out which network is broadcasting a said game. He believes Adam Silver has to solve this problem before it gets worse.
So far, the 'Round Mound of Rebound' believes that this disconnect is disrespectful to fans. Earlier, they had a good idea which network to tune in to watch their favorite shows.
It seems Charles Barkley is pointing to the lack of cohesiveness between the networks and the league. He hopes Silver figures out a way to fix this mess, as currently, it is not a great experience for fans.
On the note of cohesiveness between the NBA and its media network partners, Jimmy Traina asked Charles Barkley what he thought about the entire Shams Charania-NBA on Prime incident.
I like him a lot, but I didn't like that leaking. That network paid $2.5 billion for the next 11 years… I think the NBA should be embarrassed that it got out. You can't charge these networks that much money and then don't give them some exclusives on some things. I think that's unfair.
Charles Barkley repliedThe former league MVP pointed out that the MVP announcement was exclusively meant for NBA on Prime. Charani is essentially Barkley's colleague at ESPN. But the legend felt that it was an embarrassment.
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