It may be argued fairly persuasively that Charles Barkley has had the best mixture of an expert enjoying and broadcasting profession within the historical past of American sports activities.
As a Corridor of Fame and MVP-winning participant, he was named to each the NBA’s High 50 and High 75 all-time groups, whereas now he has grow to be arguably the perfect sports activities studio analyst in historical past.
On Friday, throughout an NBA TV look after Sport 4 of the NBA Finals, Barkley stated subsequent yr can be his closing one as a broadcaster on TV.
“I ain’t going nowhere apart from TNT,” Barkley stated on NBA TV. “However I’ve made the choice myself that, it doesn’t matter what occurs, subsequent yr goes to be my final yr on tv.”
If Barkley is actually hanging it up, he may have a spot subsequent to Howard Cosell and John Madden as analysts within the trendy period of sports activities broadcasting, crossing over as an icon in American tradition. His combo of play on the court docket and his work on TV will rank him with the Frank Giffords of yesteryear and the Michael Strahans of in the present day on an inventory of best athlete/broadcaster careers ever.
That each one stated, will he really retire? We’ll see. Possibly.
Barkley, 61, sounded honest in his feedback Friday, however he has talked about retiring ceaselessly. The previous purpose was 60, which he blew by with a decade-long contract that approached Tony Romo’s $180 million territory. After subsequent season, he may have seven years left on that deal.
What has modified since he inked the contract is that TNT Sports activities, dwelling to Barkley’s legendary “Contained in the NBA,” might not have the NBA following subsequent season.
The NBA is transferring towards the authorized paperwork on 11-year TV rights agreements value within the $76 billion vary with ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has stated that TNT might attempt to match one in every of these presents, whereas the community continues to be holding out hope for the NBA to come back again with a smaller fourth bundle of video games for it to proceed.
If TNT can one way or the other sink their half-court shot, it appears very believable that Barkley might change his thoughts to proceed with host Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith. Nevertheless, in the event that they don’t, Barkley could possibly be enticed to rethink his phrases from Friday.
ESPN, Amazon and NBC all have curiosity in Barkley, and Barkley stated he has already talked to all of them.
If NBC and Amazon finalize their agreements, it could make sense to offer themselves on the spot credibility by attempting to herald the entire “Inside The NBA” crew, or simply Barkley, if that fearsome foursome couldn’t be had.
Nevertheless, what actually appears extra believable is ESPN refusing to let Barkley say no. Within the new TV agreements, ESPN will proceed broadcasting the finals for one more 11 years after subsequent season.
![Charles Barkley](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/06/15122908/GettyImages-1792354193-scaled.jpg)
Nevertheless it ends, Charles Barkley may have posted one of many best participant/broadcaster mixed careers in sports activities historical past. (Christian Petersen / Getty Pictures)
A sweetheart deal for Barkley to do the opening night time of the common season after which the playoffs could be a win-win for everybody. Barkley wouldn’t should work as exhausting and would proceed to make tens of millions whereas gracing the ESPN studio reveals, lifting them up through the largest video games of the season, together with the finals.
In the meantime, TNT does have its contract with Barkley, the place he’s imagined to, for instance, be on its March Insanity protection of the NCAA Match. Even when Barkley had not made his announcement, fleeing to his subsequent employer might not have been as clear as simply saying, “I need to go” as he’s so helpful to TNT, at the same time as he skewers Zaslav for doubtlessly fumbling the NBA negotiations.
“We’re wanting ahead to a different implausible NBA on TNT season and additional dialogue of our future plans with (Barkley),” TNT Sports activities stated in an announcement Saturday.
Additionally it is exhausting to see Barkley go as a result of — what’s he going to do? The person is a talker. He cuts by way of as a result of he is similar on the air as he’s off and treats his former finest good friend Michael Jordan simply as he would you or I. That’s the secret sauce of Barkley — there may be sincerity with out a filter. He’ll seemingly speak every time to whomever and no matter.
Simply final month, on ESPN Cleveland, he stated he was open for enterprise to speak about different presents. Now, he says he has modified his thoughts.
Possibly Barkley goes, however he’s nonetheless going to be speaking. Exhausting to see why he wouldn’t need to proceed to make some extra tens of millions.
![go-deeper](https://cdn.theathletic.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=128,height=128,fit=cover,format=auto/app/uploads/2024/05/08004552/GettyImages-1743357823-1024x683.jpg)
GO DEEPER
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(Photograph of Charles Barkley on the NBA Finals: Stacy Revere / Getty Pictures)