Charles Barkley Says He’s Retiring Alongside Ernie Johnson After Next NBA Season

Charles Barkley has said he’s retiring from Inside the NBA alongside host Ernie Johnson after the next NBA season, and this time, it looks like he means it.

“Right now, unless Ernie changes his mind, next year is my last year for 100%,” Barkley said on a Thursday episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Johnson has hosted Inside the NBA since 1990 when TNT acquired broadcasting rights, with Barkley joining a decade later after the hall-of-famer retired from the league. Since then, the program has cemented itself as one of the best studio shows on cable despite mostly sidestepping game analysis in favor of alchemized banter. It’s a major post-game retention vehicle: In 2025, Inside the NBA averaged 3.5 million viewers following game six of the Pacers-Knicks Eastern Conference Finals versus 8.1 million for the game itself.

This isn’t the first time Barkley announced his retirement. He said he’d exit the show amid uncertainty around whether Warner Bros. Discovery would retain NBA broadcasting rights, though he ultimately said he’d stay on shortly before it was announced that the show would be licensed to ESPN as part of Warners’ settlement with the NBA.

On the podcast, Barkley said he was ready to retire until Johnson persuaded him to do another season after the show moved under the Disney umbrella.

The only reason I stayed is so that everybody could keep their jobs behind the scenes,” he said. “I’m hoping the show keeps going on ESPN, but if Ernie retires after next season, I’m done. I have so much love and respect for that guy. If he says [he’s] done, I’m done.”

Replacing Johnson will be a tall task. Whoever takes his seat will have to steer a chaotic ship, at times taken over by analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, both of whom haven’t given any indication of retiring. Barkley’s seat will be tough to fill as well, though ex-NBA players who’ve seen their stars rise in the broadcasting and podcasting worlds could be contenders, including Jeff Teague, Kevin Garnett and Richard Jefferson.