Charles Barkley Says He’s Spoken To Amazon, NBC & ESPN About New Gig Covering The NBA
One of the great things about being Charles Barkley is that you get to change your mind.
The all-time NBA great and analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA told Dan Patrick this morning that, despite previously saying he would retire after the 2024-2025 season, he has had discussions with the three newly-crowned NBA rights holders about staying on TV.
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“Everything is on the table,” Barkley told Patrick about whether he might take his talents to NBC or Amazon or ESPN. The league last week announced it had sealed a new 11-year rights deal with Amazon as well as NBCUniversal and Disney-ESPN, leaving Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT out in the cold.
The comments to Patrick came just hours after Barkley ripped the league for putting “money over the fans” in the negotiations. “It just sucks,” the social media-challenged analyst declared in a statement posted in his name to X. “The league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future.”
The so-called Round Mound of Rebound isn’t against considering a defection himself, however, rather than taking a cut in his 10-year, $210 million contract to keep the show on TNT.
“They’ll either have to guarantee the full ten years, ($210 million), or they’re going to have to ask me to take a pay cut, which, under no circumstances, am I taking a pay cut. Zero chance of me taking a pay cut,” he told Patrick.
The other option is that, if TNT does not land the rights, Barkley won’t be bound to the remainder of his contract. He had that provision written into his most recent deal. That means he’s a free agent. And he’s been acting accordingly.
“I have spoken — for the last three months — I have spoken to all the networks,” said Barkley this morning on the Dan Patrick. Patrick, an unabashed fan of Inside the NBA, then suggested the Inside gang simply take their entire staff and move to a new network.
“Well, first of all, you would have to ask Ernie (Johnson) that,” Barkley responded. “Because Ernie would probably never leave Turner. But, Dan, everything’s on the table.”
He said he has not spoken to the show’s other two analysts, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, either.
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