Ernie Johnson Says This Season Will Be His Last on Inside the NBA

Ernie Johnson announced on Wednesday that this season, his 37th as host of Inside the NBA, will be his last on the show. The 70-year-old broadcaster delivered the news himself in a video posted on his X account, the place where word of the decision spread first. "This will be my last season," Johnson said. "Totally my decision. It's just time."

Johnson was quick to say he is not leaving broadcasting behind. "Just to be clear, I'm not retiring," he said. "Just cutting back." He plans to keep hosting March Madness coverage for TNT and CBS along with other projects, and he has started a production company called 32 Bowties to tell feel-good stories in sports. "This is by no means the end," he said. "It's just a turning of the page. And I'll forever cherish every chapter we have written at Inside the NBA."

Why now

Johnson said the decision came down to the work itself. He has always prided himself on the hours of preparation he puts in before each show, and he had vowed that if that preparation ever became more of a challenge than a joy, he would know it was time to step away. After 37 seasons, he said, that time has come. Health played a part as well. Johnson said heart issues and the bypass surgery he underwent a little more than a year ago changed his perspective, and he wants more time with his wife and grandchildren. He stressed that he feels well and that no doctor ordered him to stop working.

A run that started in 1989

Johnson joined Turner Sports in 1989 and took over the studio show a year later. The panel that made the programme famous came together piece by piece: Kenny Smith joined in 1998, Charles Barkley in 2000 and Shaquille O'Neal in 2011, with Johnson steering the conversation among three of the loudest voices in the sport. The show has won 21 Sports Emmy Awards, and Johnson, a six-time Sports Emmy winner himself, is a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. A Milwaukee native, he is the son of Ernie Johnson Sr., who played for the World Series champion 1957 Milwaukee Braves. The show aired on TNT for decades before moving to ESPN and ABC last season.

The tributes arrive

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro called Johnson one of the most respected and beloved figures in sports media and said the network looks forward to celebrating him through the season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said few people have shaped the way fans experience the NBA as profoundly as Johnson has across his 37 years in the host chair. The farewell will not be his alone. Barkley said in September that he expected the 2026-27 season to be his last on the show as well, which means the programme is heading toward a full changing of the guard. Johnson will stay on air through the end of the season, giving viewers a long goodbye to the host who held the desk together for nearly four decades.