Upon an offer from Warner Bros. Discovery to exercise a matching rights provision to match a bid for a package of National Basketball Association games reportedly going to Amazon’s Prime Video, the company sued the league for breach of contract. The two sides eventually settled the lawsuit in November that gives the media conglomerate rights to show NBA content on Bleacher Report and House of Highlights in addition to some overseas distribution rights. In a separate transaction, the company agreed to license the award-winning studio program Inside the NBA to air on ESPN and ABC surrounding high-profile live events. Charles Barkley, who has worked for TNT Sports for the last 25 years, recently divulged how he learned about this seminal transaction.
During a recent appearance on the SI Media Podcast, Barkley told host Jimmy Traina that he was sitting at his home and started receiving text messages from Elle Duncan, Brian Windhorst, Scott Van Pelt and Bob Myers welcoming him to the family. In addition, he received calls from ESPN executives echoing a similar sentiment before receiving the news of the deal from TNT Sports themselves.
“That’s how unprofessional TNT has been throughout this entire process,” Barkley said. “I learned from ESPN that I was going to work for ESPN for ESPN people. TNT did not even have the common courtesy to tell us that we were going to work for ESPN.”
Barkley recalled another story where he was playing golf with two of his best friends and remembers reading articles on the internet about what was going on with the media rights negotiations. There were differing reports surrounding the situation, and Barkley recalled that three articles said it was over while another three said TNT Sports was going to make a “last-ditch bid.”
In the end though, Barkley was perturbed about how it was handled and later added that the ESPN deal was made without Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal being under new contracts. By the time he spoke to TNT Sports about the ESPN transaction, he explained that the company said the article got out, and he still remains perplexed about the additional new show he is slated to take part in with Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Dude, we talk every week,” Barkley said. “Everybody’s confused about what we’re going to do, and I will tell you this. I told you we’re taping the pilot this week – I think we’re doing it Friday. We cannot wait. Everybody’s like, ‘Well at least we’ll see what they’re going to try to do,’ which is going to be fascinating, but all four of us are really confused.”
Earlier in the podcast, Barkley explained that he has been going back and forth with TNT Sports about how much longer he can appear on television. While Barkley has explained that he thinks he can give two more years on television, he divulged that the company has been asking him to do three years. In response, Barkley has told them that while he wants it to work for everybody, he does not need to continue working “just for the hell of it.”
Barkley and TNT Sports revealed a continued long-term commitment over the summer, although he later conveyed that he received a firm offer from NBC that would have utilized him on other programming and had him on the air three nights per week after football season ended. Moreover, he conveyed a similar sentiment with his work at ESPN, which he called an “honor and a privilege,” but he elucidated that he will not appear on programming such as First Take, Get Up, SportsCenter and The Pat McAfee Show.
“I just turned 62,” Barkley said. “If there’s an old person out there watching this show, this podcast and says, ‘I want to work harder when I get older,’ they’re a damn idiot. Anybody that says that, they’re an idiot.”
Heading into next season, Barkley seems to be concerned about balancing the show licensed to ESPN/ABC with the additional venture from TNT Sports. Traina proposed a scenario where Barkley would work on Saturday night coverage on ABC while also appearing on a one-hour weekly show talking about the NBA. Barkley responded that he would be okay with that but followed up by articulating that he was not going to do both and questioning how the new show would do if it aired against other NBA games.
“There’s going to be a game on every day going forward, and the general public is not going to say, ‘Hey, let’s go watch these four dummies talk about something else,’” Barkley said. “That makes zero sense to me whatsoever.”
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