It has been a whirlwind of a last few weeks for the NBA as it pertains to their television rights, as they first announced they would be moving on from TNT in favor of a new deal with Amazon and NBC and have now found themselves as the subject of a lawsuit from Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT. TNT is of course the home of “Inside The NBA,” featuring the likes of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal, among others.
Barkley's own career plans have also added an extra layer to the drama, as Barkley initially announced that he would be retiring from television following the 2024-25 season, at which point TNT would lose their NBA rights, in what many considered to be a negotiating tactic with other networks, but now, the former MVP has said that he will honor the rest of his ten-year contract with the network regardless of what happens.
Barkley recently broke down the decision during an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show.
“No, I don’t want to be on TV that much,” said Barkley, when asked if he's going to be the “Snoop Dogg” of TNT. “Listen, the good thing about it is if they get crazy going forward, I don’t have to stay. And Dan I’ll be honest with you, my biggest thing right now what I've been thinking about is like I love TNT, I love everybody behind the scenes. The reason I’m staying at TNT is so that people could keep their jobs, but that does not mean I’m going to stay there forever, I can promise you that. I’m just happy that a lot of people at Turner are going to keep their jobs, that was my number one priority.”
A wild saga
“Inside the NBA” has long been considered the standard for sports talk shows not just in the NBA realm, but in the sports world in general. While the show is not known for its cogent analysis or knowledge of the game, a fact that it actively mocks in segments such as “Who He Play For,” Barkley, O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson still have an undeniable camaraderie that makes them entertaining for fans to watch, even if they aren't really breaking down the nuances of the game to any degree.
Barkley was sure to have plenty of other suitors at different networks to stay covering the NBA, so it will be interesting to see how he manages if asked to cover other sports at TNT.
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