With Warner Bros. Discovery engaged on ongoing media rights negotiations with the NBA, TNT commentator Charles Barkley announced Friday that he plans to retire from television broadcasting in 2025.
The 61-year-old Barkley, a Hall of Fame forward turned widely respected broadcaster, has been a mainstay on TNT since his retirement from the NBA in 2000. Mixing quick wit, sharp humor and fearless criticism, Barkley has teamed with host Ernie Johnson and commentators Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith on the popular and influential “Inside the NBA” show.
The NBA has held negotiations with Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon and NBC on its next media rights deal, which will begin after the 2024-25 season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month that talks remain ongoing, but multiple reports have indicated that Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT, could lose its NBA rights for the first time since 1988.
“There has been a lot of noise around our network the last few months,” Barkley said. “I just want to say: I’ve talked to all the other networks, but I ain’t going nowhere other than TNT. But I have made the decision myself: no matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television. I just want to say thank you to my NBA family. You guys have been great to me. My heart is full of joy and gratitude. But I’m going to pass the baton at the end of next year. I hope the NBA stays with TNT. But, for me personally, I wanted you guys to hear from me.”
Barkley, who has hinted at the possibility of retirement for years, made the announcement on an NBA TV postgame show following the Dallas Mavericks’ 122-84 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
“I’m not doing any more interviews,” he said. “Don’t y’all be calling me. I’m not talking about this again. I wanted to tell my TNT and NBA TV family that I’m not going to another network. I’m going to pass the baton to Jamal Crawford, Vince Carter or Steve [Smith].”
Barkley signed a contract extension with TNT in 2022 that reportedly gave him the opportunity to leave the network if it was unable to renew its media rights agreement with the NBA. As the media rights negotiations have dragged on for months, Barkley has repeatedly criticized TNT’s leadership and expressed his support for the network’s rank-and-file employees, who remain in limbo.
“I want to say this because you guys are my family,” Barkley said. “I really love TNT, all the people who work here, and NBA Television. You guys have been great to me for 24 years. I just want to say thank you to my entire NBA family. I love you guys.”
The 67-year-old Johnson, who joined Turner Sports in 1989, said last month he would not leave TNT even if the network lost its NBA rights.
Silver said on June 6 that the media rights negotiations are “incredibly complex” and that league staffers had been “literally working around the clock” to finalize new agreements.
“It’s complicated for several reasons," Silver said. “One is the advent of new platforms, particularly streaming, and the interest of streaming companies, and then the traditional media companies also carrying our games on streaming platforms. It’s complicated with multiple partners all seeking similar assets. In many cases, just figuring out the right way to balance those games as they go to different partners. Then lastly, we tend to do long-term deals. We think that’s good for the stability of the league, but it means to a certain extent you’re trying to predict the future, which is of course impossible.”
The commissioner added that “Inside the NBA” has held a “special” role in the league’s community and that he enjoys “a close relationship with everyone who’s on that show.”
“On one hand, from the league standpoint, it’s fantastic to be liked and to be wanted and to have multiple suitors,” Silver said. "At the same time, it makes me uncomfortable that it’s zero sum, that at the end of the day there’s only going to be so many television packages, there’s only so many Finals games and playoff games and regular season games to distribute.
“I will say directly from me, to the people who seem to be most impacted right now, the folks at Turner Sports, I apologize that this has been a prolonged process, because I know they’re committed to their jobs. I know people who work in this industry. It’s a large part of their identity and their family’s identity, and no one likes this uncertainty. I think it’s on the league office to bring these negotiations to a head and conclude them as quickly as we can.”
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