Snark, mirth and girth: A very familiar ‘Inside the NBA’ debuts on ESPN

In their ESPN debut, the stars of “Inside the NBA” showed they haven’t lost a step, even if Charles Barkley lost a few pounds.

Barkley’s apparent weight loss was mined Wednesday for laughs, as was the cast’s new home following a decades-long run on TNT, in an hour-long pregame show filled with the mirth and trash talk that came to define a program hugely popular among basketball fans.