Kenny Smith has been making the media rounds this week, ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season and what might be what he calls the “last dance” for Inside the NBA.

Smith seems optimistic about his own future, no matter what happens with TNT’s award-winning show. The network lost out on media rights in the new NBA TV package. While Warner Bros. Discovery seems committed to continuing the show in some form, there’s a good possibility it could cease to exist.

Or the show could move to another network. (Warner Bros. Discovery has also sued the NBA claiming it had contractual rights to match Amazon’s offer to stream NBA games.)

No one knows what the show’s future holds, but Smith sounds confident that no matter what happens, he is in a great spot in terms of his career. He compared his situation to that of LeBron James when he announced his free agency decision to join the Miami Heat in 2010.

“So for me, it’s an interesting time being a free agent. I was joking [previously], but I think I’m going to do it now,” Smith told The New York Post. “I’m going to eventually do the LeBron [James] and say ‘I’m taking my talents to — and I’m going to have all the kids around me like him… I think in 30 days I’m going to find me a Boys and Girls Club somewhere and do my announcement.”

Smith, 59, seemed to be joking about the timeline there, but he will be in demand if Inside the NBA doesn’t continue. The show’s other on-air talent, host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, will also generate great interest.

“I look at our show as Seinfeld,” Smith told Sports Illustrated. “It’s the four of us, together, that have made really great television that people watch and not just for basketball. We’ve individually created monster possibilities for each other. This is just, right now, our last dance, so to speak. Our last year there at TNT. At least right now, with the way it looks and the way it stands unless something drastically changes legally.

“We’re just going to enjoy that and have a lot of fun, but knowing that there are a lot of people that want to take us to the dance afterwards. I’m excited about that, about the possibilities that the future holds. Even if that’s with a continuation of some type of hybrid of what we do on TNT now.”

Smith said everyone who works on the show, down to production assistants and makeup artists, has employment prospects elsewhere.

“We have a great crew,” Smith said. “Everyone on our staff, from the person who does the statistics to makeup to production to producers, everyone is coveted by everyone. Not only by Warner Bros. Discovery, but other networks. I don’t think any of us are worried about job security. We’re all interested to see if it’s going to be all of us, if it’s going to be individual.”

So while Inside the NBA‘s future is in question beyond this season, Smith said its legacy is secure.

I like to say we’ve created an iconic show that will stand the test of time,” Smith told SI. “Every night I watch someone else’s show and I’m like, ‘Man, they’re doing something we started.’ Or they’re saying that because we started that. It’s just a blessing. I don’t take it for granted.”

[Sports Illustrated; The New York Post]