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NBA legend Charles Barkley’s TV future has remained up in the air for months.
Ever since the NBA formally announced its intention to split its broadcast rights with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon, starting in 2025, the future of TNT Sports’ standing in the sport has been uncertain.
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As such, what will become of Inside The NBA and its much-loved hosts Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Barkley, also remains unclear.
Initially, Barkley announced his intention to retire from TV following the upcoming season.
However, he has since U-turned on this decision and revealed that he plans to remain with TNT Sports having signed a 10-year deal with the network in 2022.
But if ESPN’s president of content Burke Magnus had his way, Barkley’s return to TNT Sports wouldn’t last long.
Asked whether he could picture Barkley heading to ESPN, Magnus responded “Yeah” when speaking at the Tuned In summit, via Front Office Sports.
“Yeah. That would be a perfect world, actually. Charles is a singular talent,” he added.
What’s more, Magnus admitted that he “would be lying if we said we weren’t interested in Charles.
“I think the entire industry is interested in Charles. He’s really that special. We’ll see.”
Burke also took the opportunity to allay any concerns Barkley may have had that in joining ESPN he’d be roped into working multiple roles.
“I just keep reassuring people that if you come work for us, that doesn’t mean you have to…this narrative gets started that if you come work for us, you also have to do 200 episodes of First Take or Get Up. The car wash – no,” he explained.
“The car wash is for people who want their car washed.”
Barkley recently revealed that multiple unnamed networks had attempted to poach him of late, while on The Dan Le Batard Show.
In fact, he said he’d turned down “a minimum of $100 million” in order to stay with TNT Sports.
Barkley went on to thank the networks who had shown interest, admitting, “It was really humbling and cool.”
However, he reiterated that his focus was on TNT Sports.
“As long as I got my people safe at TNT, man, I feel really good,” Barkley said in reference to his much-loved colleagues.
“Like I say, they’re gonna pay me to go and talk about nothing. So I can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Exactly what TNT Sports will be paying Barkley for beyond the upcoming season remains to be seen.
A recent report claimed that they could rebrand Inside The NBA to Inside Sports, focusing on a wide variety of sports, as per the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, TNT Sports’ parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has no intention of giving in on the battle for a media rights package just yet.
In July, a lawsuit was filed by WBD against the NBA in response to the league having allegedly turned down their offer which matched that of Amazon.
The e-commerce giant’s deal is worth $1.8 billion over 11 years.
The NBA responded in late August by filing a motion with the New York Supreme Court requesting it dismiss WBD’s lawsuit, as per ESPN.
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