The man credited with turning Inside the NBA into the most influential pregame show on television is calling it a career. Tim Kiely has announced that he is retiring from TNT and WBD Sports.
Keily had been at the network for nearly thirty years. He took over Inside the NBA in 1995 and made the hires that turned the show into what it is today. Kenny Smith came on board in 1998 on what Kiely described once as “a kind of temporary tryout”. Charles Barkley joined in 2000. Shaquille O’Neal came to the show in 2011.
He had risen to VP of Production during his time with TNT and TBS. He also was on the receiving end of 17 Emmy Awards.
Perhaps the greatest tribute the network ever gave to Kiely was admitting that his show was the standard it wanted for all what were then-Turner Sports pregame shows. A four-part documentary about the show’s influence was a nice touch too.
In an interview with NextTV in 2014, Keily said that the secret to the show’s success is the lack of a teleprompter. It forces the talent to be spontaneous and interact with each other. It also means the show cannot be afraid to point out and make fun of its own mistakes.
“I want them to talk to each other,” Kiely said in that interview. “Once you look at cameras, you lose the conversation.”
