Charles Barkley shares candid update on his future with Inside the NBA amid TNT’s legal battle with the league over media rights
Charles Barkley appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast this week to provide a long-awaited update on the future of Inside the NBA and its co-hosts, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith,
“Hey, everything is on the board,” the 61-year-old TNT Sports analyst told Simmons. “Hey Bill, like I told you before, I have, we have no idea what’s going to happen after this year. Zero.”
The ongoing mystery surrounding Barkley’s future, and that of his Inside the NBA co-hosts, remains a major topic heading into the final year of TNT’s media deal with the league.
Barkley initially threatened to retire when TNT lost the NBA to rival networks and platforms like NBC and Amazon. He has since left the door open for a return to Inside the NBA in some form.
The problem is that no one knows what form that will take, especially since TNT’s parent company is still locked in litigation with the NBA over negotiations.
Charles Barkley appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast this week to provide an important update
“They have no idea what we’re going to do,” Barkley said of the network. “So I’m sitting in this meeting in Philly.
“We want to keep making the show,” Barkley said, paraphrasing the network’s message.
“I was like, ‘What do you mean?’” he replied.
“We want to keep you together,” he added, reiterating the network’s message to him and his co-hosts.
“Well, I would consider it, because I want all my friends to keep their jobs,” Barkley continued. “I said, ‘What are we going to do?’
“We haven’t figured that out yet.”
Next to the NBA team (L-R) Shaquille O’Neal, announcer Ernie Johnson Jr., wearing an iGrow laser helmet for hair growth, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley
The problem, from Barkley’s perspective, is that TNT needs the NBA media rights to make the show work.
“I’m like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘We don’t have basketball. What the hell are we going to do?'” he asked.
“And that’s the fascinating thing,” he continued. “Like I said, I know we have one more year in the NBA and we’re going to lose. And they want to do the show for at least another year, but I’m like, ‘We don’t even have basketball. We’re going to pay for highlights!’
In July, the NBA rejected TNT Sports’ bid to match Amazon’s media rights deal with the league, and as a result announced its $77 billion agreement with that streaming service, ESPN and NBC. The 11-year pact will begin with the 2025-26 season.
TNT Sports responded to the news by stating that the NBA has no right to reject the network’s decision to match Amazon’s $1.9 billion bid.
Since then, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT, has filed a lawsuit against the NBA, alleging that the league breached its contract by rejecting its offer.