ATLANTA — Charles Barkley has identified Jalen Rose as someone he would like to see succeed him on Inside the NBA, sending television executives into the next stage of their long-running project to locate another Charles Barkley.
Barkley has said the 2026–27 season will be his last on the show and named Rose as his preferred successor, while Draymond Green has also frequently been discussed as a future television presence.
Network officials praised Rose’s basketball knowledge, television experience and ability to speak comfortably on live TV before acknowledging that the actual job description currently reads: Replace Charles Barkley.
Human resources has requested additional clarification.
The position reportedly requires the successful candidate to analyze basketball, insult at least one city without warning, abandon the original topic halfway through the segment and make Ernie Johnson visibly reconsider the rundown.
Applicants should also be comfortable operating alongside Shaquille O’Neal while neither person fully understands what the other just said.
Barkley has repeatedly insisted he intends to retire, though television executives remain hopeful that retirement will turn out to be another segment they can simply extend through the next commercial break.
Rose said nothing publicly about inheriting the role of one of the most recognizable personalities in sports television. Producers have nevertheless begun preparing him by handing him a stack of cue cards and instructing him not to read any of them.
