Charles Barkley once claimed he wasn’t a role model. But his most recent action seems to belie that.
Barkley said on the Dan Le Batard Show podcast today that he left a minimum of $100 million “on the table” to stay with Turner Sports. His decision to remain with Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports division came after TNT was left out of the NBA’s 11-year media rights deal.
Since TNT Sports lost that contract scrum, the NBA’s upcoming 2024-25 season will be its last with TNT, as the league moves on in 2025-26 to the NBA’s new 11-year deal for games with ESPN parent The Walt Disney Company, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video.
“The No. 1 thing for me is my people from Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year,” Barkley, told Le Batard. “That’s all I was concerned with.”
The decision was not easy. He admitted that it “100% was a great feeling” to get offers from outside networks recruiting him.
“I want to thank all of those networks for reaching out to me,” the NBA Hall of Famer said. “It was really humbling and cool, to be honest with you. Even though they were throwing crazy numbers, like damn, but as long as I got my people safe at TNT man, I feel really good.”
“Like I say, they’re going to pay me to go and talk about nothing,” Barkley said, adding a quip, “I probably would’ve had to do an honest day’s work if I went to one of those other networks.”
Barkley signed a 10-year deal with TNT Sports in 2022. He has served as a commentator on the channel for the award-winning NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA, the latter of which he co-hosts with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal.