As the NBA reportedly formalizes deals with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal and Amazon’s Prime Video to be its next media rights partners, questions still remain about the future of Warner Bros. Discovery and the league. Turner properties have been broadcasting the NBA since the 1984-85 season on TBS, and the NBA on TNT has significant brand equity with the league with its lineup of broadcasters and the heralded studio program, Inside the NBA. Charles Barkley, who has been a member of the studio program since 2000, has been open about his own sentiment surrounding the company and how it has handled the negotiations with the NBA.
On numerous occasions over the last month, he has appeared on various sports talk programs to give his perspective. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Barkley excoriated the work of David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer and president, questioning how the company exited its 90-day exclusive negotiating window with the league without a deal. Although there is reportedly still a possibility that Warner Bros. Discovery could land a smaller package of games pooled from regional sports networks or potentially execute its matching rights provision, although the provisions under such are ambiguous, the future remains unclear.
David Samson, the former president of the Miami Marlins, expressed on The Sporting Class podcast from Meadowlark Media that he could not stop thinking about Barkley’s conduct and remarked that he has an extraordinary amount of power. He envisioned his co-host John Skipper, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Meadowlark Media, watching Barkley indignant and having smoke come out of his ears.
“If he worked for a network I was in charge of, I would be very discomfited by his going around and telling me how to do my job,” Skipper said, “so I suspect he’s not making the David Zaslav summer barbecue.”
Samson finds the situation fascinating and conveyed that he had not heard another broadcaster do it in the same way as Barkley. Earlier in the NBA Playoffs, Barkley expressed that he could consider taking Inside the NBA independent with his production company. After host Ernie Johnson signed off Inside the NBA at the end of the Western Conference Finals and stated that next season would be a blast, Barkley remarked that he heard the word “last” at the end instead.
“He’s got another year, and he knows he can’t get fired and he knows Turner’s not getting the deal and he knows he’s a free agent, but he’s going scorched earth, and he needs a better agent,” Samson said. “…I do [think that] because I believe he doesn’t realize there’s only a certain number of bidders, and someone who’s going to sign Barkley is going to say, ‘He just did it to David [Zaslav], he’s going to do it to me next.’”
Skipper did not agree with this point, stating that anyone who had the opportunity to sign Barkley would do so. There has been intrigue surrounding a potential free agency for Barkley should Warner Bros. Discovery officially lose its rights to the NBA. Barkley revealed during an appearance on ESPN Cleveland that he had an opt-out in his contract with the company if it lost broadcasting rights to the NBA.
“Barkley probably is the most valuable pundit that there is,” Skipper said. “There’s a couple of people close, but if you were starting from scratch, you would hire Charles Barkley.”
Barkley was at Amerant Bank Arena for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, and he appeared for a segment amid the ESPN on ABC intermission report. As host Steve Levy was introducing everyone, he preceded Barkley by questioning if he was the newest member of ESPN’s coverage of the National Basketball Association. Barkley also mentioned that he tried uploading his résumé to LinkedIn but that the platform said that he had never had a real job.
“He went on ESPN, he was on the Stanley Cup,” Samson said. “I couldn’t even believe it. He went on ESPN to complain about Turner. This is a real company – he doesn’t work for TNT; he works for Warner Bros. Discovery.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has fortified its sports portfolio in the last several weeks by acquiring broadcasting rights to the French Open after it had been on NBC Sports for several decades. The company also reached a five-year deal to sublicense College Football Playoff games from ESPN, which begins with two first-round games this upcoming season. Although TNT Sports chairman and chief executive officer Luis Silberwasser expressed that the French Open did not have anything to do with the NBA, Samson believed that the company is trying to justify its sports tier and “building some critical mass.” Skipper considers Silberwasser’s statement to be genuine and underscored how long it can take to get certain deals done.
“The negotiating window Turner had just passed, what, 60 days ago at most, and these negotiations have been going on longer, and they have another year, which you just pointed out which people forget, so the distribution fees can’t go down for a year,” Skipper said to Samson. “I do think they’ll execute that strategy David, I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m just suggesting they have credibility with me when they say, ‘We were negotiating for the French Open anyway.’”
