A Fox Sports analyst made a comment about another network’s show and set off something. Inside the NBA went from a 35-year-old marquee show in NBA culture to nearly ending. After a lot of fan campaigning, NBA veterans voicing their support, and even ESPN analysts begging to save it, Inside the NBA will continue with the same cast and crew in 2025. But maybe Jason McIntyre wasn’t celebrating. He blamed the Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal-headlined show for ruining the NBA.

Did they though? There are a lot of factors causing the decline in NBA viewership. Is Inside the NBA one of them?

What is the Inside the NBA damage?

Jason McIntyre, the guy who argued with Kevin Durant last year, was on The Colin Cowherd Show to rip into another network. “I would argue that Inside The NBA, the show that everybody loves, has done more damage to the NBA in the last decade than anything,” McIntyre said. According to him, NBA viewership is down because the Inside Guys are telling us the product is bad. “You are damaging your product on a nightly basis, hammering it.”

Yes, the numbers are bad. And though Charles Barkley doesn’t like the folks at Nielsen, business isn’t great on the screen. While game attendance is growing, fans aren’t tuning into cable enough to watch the games. The In-Season Tournament was supposed to bring it up, but it’s down by 10% in 2024, its second year.

The thing though? The eight games on TNT with the Inside Guys before, during, and after, averaged 1.5 million viewers. ESPN’s six games averaged 1.16 million. Fox Sports is not part of NBA media, so it’s not that its general sports programming holds any connection for McIntyre to say it out of jealousy (unlike what some social media users are accusing him of).

But his comments stirred a debate. For all its freewheeling entertainment, Kenny’s race to the board, Chuck re-enacting Ghost, Shaq doing property damage, and Ernie’s unsullied stats, there is an impact the show has had on NBA culture. It’s been around since NBA media rights became an actual product in 1989, just as Michael Jordan made NBA live broadcast-worthy. It’s so enmeshed with the games, it’s impossible to separate the show from the league.

So we can forget that McIntyre traded barbs with KD. But Charles Barkley calls Durant a ‘bus driver’ and the entire fandom parrots it. Hence, McIntyre is right in one aspect. The show has an effect on the NBA community. Negative or positive is subjective.

Shaq and Chuck’s show is a dual-edged sword

Fans can admit that the show is less basketball and more entertainment. We remember Chuck’s bracelet story more than the time he was driving the Embiid hype train (which he’s squarely off since Joel Embiid’s recent issues). For fans, Sir Charles Barkley, Big Diesel Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, and The Godfather Ernie Johnson are memorable for their antics. But even NBA players more often accept the harsh words of the former NBA pros-turned-analysts.

Their harsh commentary does feel like they’re putting down the product. Fans though reacted to McIntyre’s comments saying they wouldn’t watch a show that wasn’t this blunt. NBA players react to Shaq and Chuck and say they respect their opinions in the same breath. Some are silent like Victor Wembanyama, who up their game every time Shaq screams “Bol Bol.” On the contrary, Stephen A. Smith’s comments rub players the wrong way because he’s never played in the league.

Fans who rallied to save the show can admit with a grain of salt that Inside the NBA is a tiny bit responsible for bashing the product. But Adam Silver said this week, “it’s not a lack of interest in this game,” that’s bringing down viewership. So according to the commissioner, Shaq and Chuck picking on players and teams is not diminishing interest in the game.

Silver casually upturned the debate though. While admitting ratings are down, he also said that the NBA viewership is greater online. That’s why the strategic shift to Amazon makes sense. If Inside the NBA is really apocalyptic to NBA, interest will really be obvious when it shifts to ESPN in 2025.