NEW YORK – Ernie Johnson is giving up the nightly preparation and familiar studio desk of “Inside the NBA,” not his place on television. The host who has spent 37 seasons guiding the show’s conversations says the current campaign will be his last, while other broadcasting work will continue.
Johnson announced Wednesday, October 28, that he will leave after the 2026–27 season. He called the decision entirely his own and described a change in the work behind the show: preparation he had always enjoyed had become more of a challenge than a joy.
That distinction puts a boundary around a departure that could otherwise be mistaken for retirement. Johnson plans to remain involved with March Madness and other projects for TNT and CBS, while a new production company will give him another way to tell sports stories away from the studio desk.
In his announcement carried by NBA.com, Johnson said he had long promised himself that a change in his enthusiasm for preparation would tell him when to leave. After 37 seasons, he said, that point had arrived. It is an exit scheduled for the end of the season, not an immediate departure from the broadcast.
Johnson, 70, also discussed heart problems and bypass surgery 14 months earlier. In the official NBA on ESPN video, he described his health as a contributing factor rather than a medical order to stop. Johnson said he felt great and explicitly rejected the idea that a doctor had told him he needed to quit working.
His explanation was about how that experience had changed the value of his time. Johnson said it had made him treasure moments with his wife of 44 years and their five grandchildren even more. He wanted to slow down and spend more time enjoying those relationships. He did not present the announcement as a farewell forced by an inability to work.
The distinction was clearest when Johnson said, “I’m not retiring. I’m just cutting back.” He identified March Madness and further TNT and CBS assignments as work he intends to retain, and named his new production company, 32 Bowties. Its focus, he said, would be feel-good stories in sports.
That leaves a specific hole in “Inside the NBA”: the host who has been its full-time anchor since 1990. Johnson joined the Turner operation in 1989 after working in local news in Georgia, according to the NBA. His national assignments grew across basketball, baseball and college basketball, but this desk became the constant.
The show’s ensemble formed over years rather than arriving together. NBC Sports’ account places Kenny Smith’s arrival in 1998, Charles Barkley’s in 2000 and Shaquille O’Neal’s in 2011. Johnson’s tenure stretches across each version of the panel. In his announcement, he thanked those three colleagues as his brothers and credited the production crews alongside them.
The on-screen format depended on that continuing group even as its distribution changed. NBC Sports reports that the show moved from TNT to ESPN and ABC last season. Johnson thanked the leadership at TNT and ESPN for allowing it to continue, separating his own decision to leave from the arrangements that kept the program on television.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, in a statement reported by NBC Sports, said few people had shaped how fans experience the league as profoundly as Johnson. Silver credited not only his broadcasting but his character, compassion and generosity, and said the league looked forward to celebrating him during his final season.
Barkley had previously said he expected this campaign to be his last on the show, NBC Sports also reported. That is a separate statement from Johnson’s announcement. It does not establish the future of the entire panel, name a successor or mean the show itself has announced an end date.
The reports reviewed do not identify who will replace Johnson. His own closing words pointed instead to the work still in front of him: after thanking viewers for their loyalty and understanding, he returned to the broadcast with, “Now, let’s go to work.”
