Ernie Johnson addresses Charles Barkley-induced retirement rumors: ‘I can see the finish line’
Charles Barkley may have announced Ernie Johnson’s retirement from Inside the NBA, but Ernie Johnson still hasn’t announced his own retirement.
Johnson recently joined sports radio host Dom DiTommaso for his first-ever show on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh to talk about his career and reflect on what it was like to call Pirates playoff games on TBS more than a decade ago. Before the interview finished up, DiTommaso asked Johnson whether basketball fans had to worry about him retiring from Inside the NBA.
“There are a lot of discussions happening at this point,” Johnson admitted carefully. “I can see the finish line, I’ll put it that way.”
DiTommaso followed up with a more direct question, asking whether Johnson wanted to offer a retirement date. And while Barkley may have announced Johnson’s retirement date, Johnson would not confirm those rumors.
“No, I would not,” Johnson answered before crediting DiTommaso for asking the necessary follow-up question on his first show for The Fan in Pittsburgh. “Thank you so much for pressing the issue… if you had not, I would have been very disappointed in you.”
As the NBA season tips off this week, Barkley has claimed this will be his own final season on Inside several times in recent months. Barkley, of course, has been forecasting his own retirement for over a decade now, only to keep moving the goalposts. But Barkley insists he really means it this time because, according to Barkley, this will be Johnson’s final season. And if it’s Johnson’s final season, then it will be Barkley’s final season too, stating they’re a package deal.
Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports countered Barkley, recently reporting that Johnson hasn’t made a final decision on his future. Johnson’s reluctance to make a definitive statement about his future with DiTommaso on 93.7 The Fan seems to align with Glasspiegel’s reporting.
Johnson is a young 70 years old, but it has long been believed he is closer to retirement than anyone else on Inside. And maybe Barkley really will retire whenever Johnson does. Or maybe Barkley is using Johnson’s approaching retirement as leverage for more money if ESPN wants to keep him around.
We don’t know when Johnson will retire. Maybe Johnson still doesn’t know when he will retire. But Johnson did prove what we already knew. That Barkley’s own retirement announcement was premature.
The post Ernie Johnson addresses Charles Barkley-induced retirement rumors: ‘I can see the finish line’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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