Ernie Johnson to Retire From 'Inside the NBA' After 37 Years

In other news here today, we did learn that one of the all-time greats, legendary NBA broadcaster Ernie Johnson says that he will end his run of 37 years with the Inside the NBA crew after this season. He made this announcement on X earlier today. He just turned 70. he said quote it's just time uh and later did reveal that he has dealt with heart issues and underwent bypass surgery 14 months ago making him realize that he wants to spend more time with his wife and grandkids than Charles Barkley and i cannot say that he didn't say to Charles Barkley part but you understand that i don't blame him uh but what a run it has been and boy what a finale that should be this year yeah so what i when i think about that and and you know this this goes back you know of when i was watching the NBA every single night and i was watching the show on TBS or TNT uh i i think it goes without saying that that studio show is the best studio show of all time the way that he was able to manage it and even before Shaquille O'Neal uh was there the way that he was able to manage it was just him and it was Barkley and it was Kenny Smith just the three of them and then every once in a while they'd bring in a special guest and then Shaq eventually became part of the show Shaq made it better too Shaq does a great job on that show too yes but the way that the way that he was a distributor and was able to sit back and let those guys talk like no host in the history of sports ever did that Joe like who was a host yeah just let the other guys have the show he was so good at it and he did say that he's still gonna do studio for the NCAA tournament so he'll do that in March and that's it but yes coming to an end as uh one of the great great uh hosts on the best studio show in my mind in sports of all time uh you you can you can and by the way what they're doing joe i mean you think of what fox is doing in baseball bringing in david ortiz and jeter and uh and a rod they're all trying to emulate that show you know the host is just trying to have fun and they're they're all trying to be that but you know credit to Ernie Johnson. Barkley has been unbelievable on that show, too. Like, these guys, Joe, they don't even know the players sometimes in the NBA. They don't even care. They don't even care. They're just having a great time. And Ernie Johnson, you know, and he did baseball, too, but he is... As far as studio hosts are concerned, you're putting him on the Mount Rushmore, I think, of all-time studio hosts, so congratulations to him on a very long career, and whoever steps into that role, wow. i mean you talk about shoes to fill man like this is not monday night football this is this is not college football this is a show that has been the award-winning best show of all time and it may be the studio in the history of sports so i don't envy that person that's going to be a special person that has to take on that role yeah word has it that uh tony romo actually up for his job uh they are they can no you gotta work that money off somehow just saying gotta work that off somehow there he did say also though uh because he's he's iconic with the NBA in that show but he also has done a ton with March Madness uh and he said that that will continue March Madness games he'll work on some projects for CBS TNT so he won't ride off into the sunset we'll still get to see Ernie but uh there will that is i don't know i don't know who you get uh i mean that's i almost feel like Van Pelt or it's got to be somebody that can play that that role and sit between the Kenny Smiths the Shacks and the Barkleys not a lot of guys and because you can't make it one of those guys it's got to be somebody else that can navigate between them but uh my goodness those ESPN shows that they had through that maybe they still have those shows where they tried to be like those and they brought in a lot of the ESPN personalities those never came close to what that show was i don't even know if they still do those shows anymore by the way but um yeah it's it's gonna take it it's gonna require uh you know a special host to be able to do that and look the show will continue on and i'm sure it'll be very good Barkley's certainly not going anywhere we know Shaq is only a few years into doing this with them so uh yeah the show goes on but it'll be with somebody else but Ernie Johnson has left behind a tremendous legacy as far as so it's in the one thing that he said and it's like it got me thinking a little bit and is that he said that he would not stop doing the show until he didn't want to prepare to do the show and when he knew that he didn't want to do the preparation that's when he knew it was time to call it quits that's a scary call Joe like when you don't when you don't want to sit there and because i do that for the for for the shows too and it's like and i enjoy getting ready for shows and the day that you don't want to do that yeah that's that's that's the day if you if you're not excited to come on the air and talk sports you got to stop Thank you.