Charles Barkley took to Instagram on Friday morning to express the sentiment many basketball fans have been feeling this week:
“It's bullshit.”
Barkley, a longtime analyst on TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show, made his comments in a statement released 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 aired NBA games since 1989, will no longer do so after next season. Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit Friday against the NBA in New York Supreme Court, claiming the league breached its current agreement by allegedly refusing to respect Turner’s rights to match an offer from Amazon in the new contract.
Barkley didn't hold back.
“It’s clear 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 amount, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double their offering in the future. The NBA didn’t want to upset them.”
“It's a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over fans. It's a real shame.”
Barkley gave more details later Friday during an appearance on the “Dan Patrick Show.”
“What I really think happened was because they brought in another partner, it was a desperate attempt by the NBA and the players to get money,” Barkley said. “That’s why I think they signed an 11-year deal, kind of like, ‘Hey, let’s get as much money as we can right now. This is going to be our last bite of the apple because TNT, ABC/ESPN, they’re not going to pay any more money in the future. ’ That’s why I think they said … ‘Let’s just go to bed with streaming because they’re going to be the only people who can pay us in 11 years. That’s just my honest opinion.”
The NBA declined to comment.
Inside the NBA began in 1989. Ernie Johnson became the show's first and only permanent host the following 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 plenty of laughs.
All this seems to be coming to an end, although not yet.
“We're going to give you everything we've got next season,” Barkley wrote.
Barkley said last month that next season will be his last on television, regardless of what happens with the rights deal. But he admitted to Patrick that he has “talked to the three networks that have kept the NBA moving forward.”
“I'd be stupid not to answer his call,” said Barkley, who added that he still leans toward retiring in a year.
