Charles Barkley sounds off on new NBA TV deal: ‘I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance’
Charles Barkley took to Instagram on Friday morning to express the sentiment many basketball fans have felt this week:
“It just sucks.”
Barkley, a longtime analyst on TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show, made his remarks in a statement posted two days after the league completed an 11-year, $76-billion media rights deal with NBCUniversal, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Amazon beginning with the 2025-26 season.
That deal means TNT, which has broadcast NBA games since 1989, will no longer do so after the upcoming season.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempt to match Amazon bid is rejected, ending TNT’s run as an NBA partner after next season.
TNT parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday that it submitted a matching offer to the league, with The Times reporting that the company was targeting Amazon’s bid of $1.8 billion a year for a package of games that would go to Prime Video. But the NBA said in a statement Wednesday that Warner Bros. Discovery did not match the terms offered by Amazon.
TNT said in a statement the same day: “We think [the NBA has] grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action.”
Barkley didn’t hold back.
“They can’t go on like this,” Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said, referring to the lagging stock and string of missteps by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.
“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning,” he wrote. “I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance. TNT matched the money, but 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 NBA didn’t want to piss them off.
“It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”
The NBA declined to comment.
”Inside the NBA” started in 1989. Ernie Johnson became the show’s first and only permanent host the next year and was later joined by analysts Kenny Smith (1998), Barkley (2000) and Shaquille O’Neal (2011). Over the years, the show has provided plenty of basketball analysis and lots of laughs.
TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ show with Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson will likely end after the 2024-25 season with the NBA leaving the network.
That all seems to be coming to an end — but not quite yet.
“We’re going to give you everything we have next season,” said Barkley, who has also said he will retire from TV in 2025.
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