The NBA’s partnership with TNT is coming to an end after this upcoming season. While the league was able to strike a deal with Disney to keep the NBA on ESPN as part of its upcoming, 11-year long media rights deal, Warner Bros. Discovery was not able to agree to terms during its exclusive negotiating rights period.
This opened the door for NBC and Amazon to come in and agree to a deal with the NBA, and while Warner Bros. Discovery claimed it had the ability to match a deal put forth by one of them — it attempted to match Amazon — the league argued that this applied to more than just matching the finances of a deal, which they just could not do. We’ll have to see if there are any legal ramifications for this, but as a result, Turner is on the outside looking in, and its most prominent basketball analyst is not happy.
Charles Barkley, legendary TNT Inside the NBA Analyst, releases statement pic.twitter.com/oP3depz9xd
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 26, 2024
It’s a pretty forthright statement from Barkley, who accused the league of never giving his network a fair shake in the negotiating process. Barkley has already announced that he does not plan on working beyond next year, even in light of networks trying their hardest to convince him to join them, largely out of the loyalty he feels to Turner and the people he’s worked alongside during his time at the network.
Barkley is, of course, never one to bite his tongue, and it’s pretty clear he’s pissed off about all of this. Our hunch is that he’s going to make it a point to express this, over and over, during Turner’s final year broadcasting the league.