Charles Barkley on TNT potentially losing NBA rights: ‘Morale sucks, plain and simple’
Charles Barkley has soared to fame in sports television by speaking his mind — and the iconic NBA broadcaster did not hold back during an appearance with “The Dan Patrick Show” on Thursday.
Barkley said he is ticked off at his bosses and that the atmosphere among the NBA staffers at Warner Bros. Discovery is not good as TNT Sports’ future with the NBA remains in limbo with one piece of the NBA’s next television rights deal still up for grabs. ESPN is set to pay $2.6 billion a season for the NBA Finals and conference finals in an upcoming deal, while Amazon Prime Video will receive a conference final every other year and is expected to be in the $1.8 billion-per-year range, The Athletic previously reported.
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NBC is the favorite for the final share of TV rights. If Warner Bros. Discovery does not retain rights to the NBA, the 2024-25 season will be the last for “Inside the NBA” — a show with a 35-year history — on its current platform.
“Morale sucks, plain and simple,” said Barkley, regarding Warner Bros. Discovery’s seemingly losing hand in the negotiations for the upcoming NBA media rights. “I just feel so bad for the people I work with. These people have families and I just really feel bad for them right now. You know these people I work with (management), they screwed this thing up, clearly. 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.” (TNT Sports added College Football Playoff games in a five-year sub-licensing deal with ESPN.)
“I was like, oh, damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA,” Barkley said. “We’ve never had college football, never been involved with college football. 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.”
Charles Barkley says morale sucks amid the uncertainty of “Inside the NBA” moving forward. And discusses the possibility of hiring the crew to his production company, continuing to do the show, and selling it.
Patrick asked Barkley about the prospect of “Inside the NBA” staffers Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal forming a production company and then selling themselves as a fully packaged Inside The NBA-like show.
Barkley, who owns his own production company, said he has discussed that possibility. “I would love to do that if we lose it. Somebody suggested that to me, to be honest with you, on the internet. … I’m like, that’s a great idea. But we’re just sitting back waiting on these people to figure out what they’re going to do. My two favorite wines are Inglenook and Opus and these clowns I work for, they’ve turned us into Ripple and Boone’s Farm and Thunderbird. We got the best studio show — it’s so funny, we just won the (Sports Emmy’s) best studio show and these fools turned us from Inglenook and Opus into damn’s Boone’s Farm and Ripple. It’s crazy.”
