Charles Barkley has candidly expressed his sentiments regarding TNT Sports potentially losing NBA rights to NBC, especially concerning the potential conclusion of Inside The NBA. In an interview with Phoenix, Arizona's NBC affiliate 12News, he made his position even more clear.

“I’m gonna enjoy – it’s not even retirement. I got fired. I didn’t retire. I got fired.”

He elaborated, saying, “I’m not mad for myself. What I’m saying is when I get fired, ‘Dude, you’re going to get to play some more golf. You’re going to get to smoke some more cigars. You’re going to be able to drink some more beer.’ More free time. I’ve said this before. Out of all the people in the world, I think there’s like 300 million, somewhere in that range… there’s nobody in the world better at doing nothing than me.”

Barkley has made it clear that the potential loss of the NBA wouldn't affect him more than it affects the people that work behinds the scenes to make the show great.

“It’s people’s lives,” Barkley said in a quote obtained by the New York Times. “Not my life. Not Ernie’s life. Not Kenny’s life. Not Shaq’s life. But all the people who work here. We probably have 100 people who do work on the show. So they’re, like, real people. I’ve seen their kids born, graduate high school, graduate college.”

Warner Brothers Discovery is in intense talks with NBCUniversal for NBA broadcasting rights, where NBC appears to have the upper hand. NBCUniversal is offering $2.5 billion annually for a game package. The league concluded exclusive negotiations with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery on April 22. It plans to proceed with Disney, bring in Amazon as a new partner, and assign the rest of the package to either Warner Bros. Discovery or NBCUniversal, per insider sources.

Warner Bros. Discovery was paying $1.2 billion annually under the existing rights agreement to broadcast NBA games. The upcoming deal will be notably higher and involve fewer games, as the NBA aims to welcome Amazon as a third media rights collaborator. While Warner Bros. Discovery can match NBCUniversal's bid, the NBA appears to favor NBCUniversal due to its expanded capabilities.

Amid the ongoing NBA media rights battle with NBC, TNT Sports revealed a five-year agreement to sublicense specific College Football Playoff (CFP) games from ESPN, as announced by the College Football Playoffs. TNT's entry into the College Football Playoffs aligns with reports from the Sports Business Journal indicating that the NBA is close to a partnership deal with NBC, in addition to Disney/ESPN and Prime Video. Currently, Disney, NBC, and Amazon are in the last phases of media rights discussions with the NBA, focusing on drafting contracts and ironing out details.

Charles Barkley has been vocal about his displeasure in how Warner Bros. Discovery has handled the negotiation, even directly calling out CEO David Zazlav in an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show last week.

“I just feel so bad for the people I work with Dan,” Barkley said of the negotiation. “These people have families, and I just really feel bad for them right now. These people I work with [Turner] they screwed this thing up clearly, and we don’t have zero idea what’s going to happen. I don’t feel good; I’m not going to lie, especially when they came out yesterday and said we bought college football. I was like; well damn, they could’ve used that money to buy the NBA…and I’m like; wait a minute, shouldn’t we be spending every dime we got to keep the NBA? So, morale sucks to be honest with you Dan.”