Charles Barkley and crew return, Jim Salisbury back at NBC Sports Philadelphia, and questions at NFL Network

Charles Barkley is about to get his wish to work more this season.

The former Sixers star and his longtime Inside the NBA colleagues Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson return to ESPN Friday night to cover a doubleheader beginning at 7:30 p.m. Philly time.

Since making the jump to ESPN this season, Inside the NBA’s schedule hasn’t been as orderly as it was on TNT, where it aired every Thursday night as part of an NBA doubleheader (outside of the first few months of the year, where it avoided going head-to-head with Amazon’s Thursday Night Football).

Or as frequent. Entering Friday night, Inside the NBA has only aired on ESPN or ABC nine times this season, something Barkley has complained about on various platforms.

“I wish we’d have been on more during the first half of the season,” Barkley said on The Dan LeBatard Show last month. “We only worked one day in December.”

But as ESPN always planned, Inside the NBA’s schedule will ramp up in the final third of the season leading into the playoffs. This week alone the show is scheduled to air three straight nights and six times over the next 10 days. It will also air during ESPN’s coverage of the Eastern Conference finals and the NBA Finals.

The back-loaded schedule was actually requested by TNT Sports, according to ESPN president of content Burke Magnus, who said their deal included a provision that called for the majority of Inside the NBA episodes to air after Jan. 1.

“I’m not entirely sure what was behind that,” Magnus said on the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast in November, adding he’s “confident” they can figure out a way to make the schedule more consistent throughout the entire season.

Fans are certainly tuning in. Inside the NBA is averaging 1.34 million viewers per show across ABC and ESPN, according to Nielsen numbers. Their TNT numbers weren’t immediately available, but NBA games themselves on TNT averaged 1.25 million viewers last season.

Here’s the full Inside the NBA schedule on ESPN and ABC for the rest of the season:

Ian Rapoport is used to breaking news, but the longtime insider at the NFL Network hasn’t yet gotten the scoop on his own future.

“Just so we are clear, I don’t know what is coming,” Rapoport told The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. “There are a lot of things I don’t know.”

Last month, regulators approved ESPN’s deal to take over control of the NFL Network as part of its billion-dollar acquisition of NFL Media, with the NFL receiving a 10% ownership stake in the Disney-owned sports network. ESPN is expected to take full control of the network in April, and Rapoport’s contract expires in May.

In case you’d forgotten, ESPN already has its own NFL news breaker: Adam Schefter. But the network also has a history of employing multiple NFL insiders, pairing Chris Mortensen and Schefter for years. Prior to that, Mortensen worked breaking NFL news alongside John Clayton

Rapoport isn’t the only NFL insider at the NFL Network. Philly native Mike Garafolo and Tom Pelissero also cover the league’s moves, and the three cohost a show on the NFL Network appropriately called The Insiders.

ESPN has been quiet about its plans for the NFL Network. Rapoport said, from his understanding, “it’s going to be more football, more coverage, investing in NFL Network, and making it as best as it can possibly be.”