In the last year, we've wondered whether Charles Barkley's time on Inside the NBA may be winding down.  Barkley himself has spoken of different challenges and opportunities and the time may be approaching when it's time for Chuck to try something new.  Now comes a report that Barkley's longtime partner - Kenny "The Jet" Smith, may leave Inside the NBA.  Smith has publicly thrown his hat into the ring for the Sacramento Kings GM job as well as saying he's seriously looking at jobs on the sideline and in the front office.

Smith admitted he was "talking" to the Kings and told Sam Amick of USA Today he's seriously looking at new opportunities:

Expect to see headlines like this all over the ESPN family of networks once again this summer.  The New England Patriots signed Tim Tebow Monday, which is pretty much the Doomsday Scenario for the coming season.  If you thought Bristol went overboard withTebowMania 2.0 and the Jets, just imagine what will happen when combined with Bill Belichick and the most high profile franchise in the sport.  It's TebowMania 3.0 - Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (or maybe that was the South Park movie).

Nothing can be written on this subject that hasn't been written ad naseum already.  Just replace "Jets" with "Patriots" and "Rex" with "Belichick" and you'll see the same tired headlines, the same tired debates, the same old song and dance that we've had to suffer through the last two and a half years.  So instead of another "fresh take" wrapped in hot manure, here are some tweets mocking ESPN's reaction to the signing.  As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
NCAA Division I Tournament
Super Regionals

Chapel Hill Super Regional, Chapel Hill, NC
Game 3: South Carolina vs. North Carolina -- ESPN2, noon

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

Cycling
Tour De Suisse
Day 4: Innertkirchen to Buochs -- beIN Sport, 11:30 a.m.

Monday, June 10

Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays (ESPN 7PM) Dave O’Brien, Rick Sutcliffe, Aaron Boone

Tuesday, June 11

San Francisco Giants @ Pittsburgh Pirates (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Red Sox @ Rays]
Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cubs (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaises

Wednesday, June 12

Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cubs (MLBN 2PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Tigers @ Royals]
Cleveland Indians @ Texas Rangers (ESPN 8PM) Jon Sciambi, Curt Schilling

Thursday, June 13

Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Royals @ Rays]

Friday, June 14

San Francisco Giants @ Atlanta Braves (MLBN 7:30PM)Matt Vasgersian, John Smoltz [Alt: Brewers @ Reds - 7PM]

Saturday, June 15

Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles (MLBN 4PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Giants @ Braves]
New York Yankees @ Los Angeles Angels (FOX 7:15PM) Joe Buck, Tim McCarver
Washington Nationals @ Cleveland Indians (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Detroit Tigers @ Minnesota Twins (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Chicago White Sox @ Houston Astros (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics (FOX 7:15PM) Rich Waltz, Eric Karros

Sunday, June 16

Chicago Cubs @ NY Mets (WGNA 1PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaises
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Pittsburgh Pirates (TBS 1:30PM) Dick Stockton, Dennis Eckersley
San Francisco Giants @ Atlanta Braves (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk

H/T Sammy!

No, don't tell me, no, please no, not again...

Just filed to ESPN: The Patriots are signing QB Tim Tebow and expect him to be in minicamp tomorrow

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) June 10, 2013

Thanks for ruining the 2013 NFL season Bill Belichick.  Thanks a lot.

Despite a dominant win by LeBron James and the Heat, Game 2 of the NBA Finals drew just a 10.2 overnight rating, the lowest for a Finals game since Lakers-Magic Game 5 in 2009. Game 2 this year was also down 14% from Heat-Thunder in 2012 (11.8) and 3% from Heat-Mavericks in 2011 (10.5).

There are some interesting notes about this game that throw the reasons behind the low rating into question. Firstly, the 10.2 was actually the highest national overnight of all of the Spurs' Game 2s in the past, topping the 10.0 mark set by the Spurs-Knicks matchup in 1999. The game was also down locally in both Miami and San Antonio, drawing a 29.7 in Miami which was down 3% from 2012's Game 2 (30.3) and 16% from 2011's Game 2 (35.3), and drawing a 32.7 in San Antonio was which down 24% from 2007's Game 2 (Spurs-Cavaliers, 42.9) and down 25% from 2005's Game 2 (Spurs-Pistons, 43.4).

So, what can you make of it? Maybe the Spurs' national appeal is slightly up, while the local interest in them and the Heat are down. Maybe, despite the rise in national popularity for the Spurs, it's still far behind that of the Thunder. Maybe Dwayne Wade, who has had two underwhelming games thusfar this series, is more critical to ratings success for the Heat than we imagined.

There really are several reasons you can think of that could cover the ratings failings of this series so far, but all things considered, I'm willing to bet that these ratings are a best case scenario for ESPN after the Thunder got bounced by the Grizzlies in the Western Conference Semifinals. 

[Sports Media Watch]

During an interview with Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal, NBA commissioner David Stern called Billy Corben's 30 for 30 documentary Broke mildly racist. 

Actually, it's a lot of money for any socioeconomic group. So it wouldn't be fair to think about the image of a poor black kid from the ghetto. That isn't the prototype. The prototype is pretty sophisticated kids who've been guiding their way to get here.

Because so many of them are African American, I viewed the entire story as mildly racist.

This is about part for the course for Stern at this point, and it's more than a little ironic considering his implementation of an NBA dress code that could also be described as mildly racist.

There is a recurring segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live called "Mean Tweets",  where celebrities read mean tweets that people have written them. It's a pretty hilarious segment, and with the NBA Finals currently ongoing, Kimmel broke out an NBA edition. Perhaps the best one was "Bill Simmons looks like the kind of guy who will watch you sleeping" while Simmons stares at the camera nodding in a very, very creepy manner. Other broadcasting personalities featured include Bob Costas, Shaq, and Greg Anthony. This is definitely worth a watch, and it puts a nice little spotlight on the sheer ridiculousness that celebrities and athletes have to deal with on a daily basis on Twitter.

Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the Kings and Blackhawks on Saturday night drew a 2.9 overnight rating, the best ever for a Conference Final on NBC. Once again, the NHL managed to top MLB in primetime, with the Kings-Blackhawks game picking up 3.32 million viewers, a 2.9 overnight rating,  and a 1.1 overnight rating in the 18-49 demo, while Fox's slate of MLB games drew 3.21 million viewers and a 0.7 overnight rating in the 18-49 demo. (UPDATE: MLB actually outrated the NHL in total overnight rating 3.2 to 2.9).

The Western Conference Final was slightly down compared to Game 1 of the Bruins-Penguins Eastern Conference Final last Saturday, which drew 3.43 million viewers and a 1.2 in the 18-49 demo. Once again, MLB's viewership and ratings were flat compared to last week for a slate that was highlighted by the Angels-Red Sox in the northeast and west coast and the Reds-Cardinals in the midwest and south. 

NBC televises the single best sports product on television - Sunday Night Football.  It's the most watched, the most respected, the best announced, the best produced, and even presents the best studio coverage.  It's the pinnacle of live sports television.  

That's why it's so perplexing the same network also continues to botch live coverage of sporting events that takes viewers around the country to a time and place where you had to get up out of your chair and turn a dial to adjust the volume on your television sets.

The #NBCFail hashtag was one of the biggest stories of the London Olympics last Summer when NBC decided against showing many events live, preserving them for their primetime broadcast window instead.  NBC was ripped from coast to coast for their inability and unwillingness to show events live on television in an information age that not only demands it, but necessitates it.  NBC did offer events live through online streaming, but buffering problems were rampant and premier streams were often unbearable to watch.

During the most climactic moments of this year's French Open, NBC's controversial live events policy once again reared its ugly head as the network couldn't figure out whether they wanted to commit to showing live sports or Al Roker.  The peacock disregarded showing Friday morning French Open coverage live to the entire country in a confusing, confounding series of events that left scores of tennis fans holding the bucket for Matt Lauer and company once again.