Prominent NBA personality says ‘Inside the NBA’ is ‘over’

Credit: ESPN on ABC After a regular season where Inside the NBA was on the ESPN airwaves sporadically, the postseason has finally brought more consistency from EJ, Kenny, Shaq, and Charles. But some of the issues that plagued the beloved show throughout its first season on ESPN still persist. Inside the NBA only made a handful of appearances throughout the 2025-2026 NBA regular season in its first year being a licensed product on ESPN.

Although we knew the schedule well ahead of time, it was still a shock to the system to see one of the greatest studio shows in sports history take so many prolonged absences. With a much more active schedule throughout the postseason, there were hopes that the show would return to its cultural zenith . However, that has proven to not necessarily be the case, at least according to one of the authorities on NBA Twitter.

Rob “World Wide Wob” Perez is one of the most followed and most influential voices on NBA Twitter. And one of his major issues with Inside the NBA this season has been the limited run times for the show, especially when it has aired on ABC and run into strict airtime limits up against local broadcast affiliates. After playoff coverage on ESPN on Wednesday, Perez called attention to one of the show’s trademark segments, “EJ’s Neat-o Stat of the Night” as falling short of what it was in the past.

EJ taking responsibility for it not working reveals a lot, btw, as he made it sound like the trivia was his idea. This is what knowledgeable coordinating producers/writers rooms are there for, to bring good segment ideas to talent. Needless to say: there haven’t been many that… — Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 30, 2026 “That NeatO segment was so bad, EJ had to apologize for it before signing off.