Charles Barkley spent time on ESPN Chicago yesterday with the Waddle & Silvy show. One of the topics that came up from hosts Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman is the NBA media rights agreement, which expires after next season for ESPN and TNT. ESPN has the framework of their deal in place and Amazon’s Prime Video is said to have secured the “C” package which leaves one spot remaining for two very interested parties – Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal.
Barkley was asked, “What can you tell us about the future of Inside the NBA and what direction you think it’s all headed?”
“We have zero idea what is going to happen,” Barkley said. “We might lose it. I feel so bad for the people I work with. It is brutal, flat out brutal. Everybody is scared to death…So I will tell you this, it is very stressful for the people I work with. And I wish I could give you an answer. We might lose it.”
While many have reported NBC is the driver’s seat with negotiations and some, such as The Ringer’s Bill Simmons believe it is already over, Barkley believes there is still a chance for TNT but also said their long relationship with the league is not paying off in the negotiations.
“It’s 50-50 that we lose our part to NBC. Am I concerned? 100%. Because as much as we have been partners with the NBA for, I think 40 years, you would think if it was close in a bidding war we would get the benefit of the doubt, but clearly that is not happening. So, to answer your question, they are scared to death over here right now. I feel so bad for the people I work with.”
Barkley had appeared on The Dan Patrick Show two weeks ago and said he thought that would be the day they would find out. Obviously, that did not happen. Barkley was asked then about the possibility of Inside the NBA continuing on somewhere else, knowing Ernie Johnson would stay at TNT.
“I don’t know how it works without Ernie,” Barkley said. “And I can’t speak for NBC. I don’t know if they’d want all three of us. Our show won’t be the same without Ernie. Ernie is the most important person on our show.”
