Charles Barkley rips TNT leadership as 'clowns' and 'fools' as network is set to lose NBA TV rights

Though he’s a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest inch-for-inch rebounders in the history of the NBA, Charles Barkley is known by a younger generation of basketball fans primarily as a commentator.

Since his retirement from the NBA in 2000, the former Auburn star and Leeds native has worked as an analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” which is widely regarded as one of the best — if not the best — studio show in the history of sports television.

The program’s beloved cast of Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson may only be around for so much longer, with TNT reportedly not among the networks signing deals with the NBA in its most recent round of media rights packages. Without NBA games airing on the network, “Inside the NBA,” at least on TNT, would effectively cease to exist.

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Understandably, Barkley isn’t thrilled about the situation.

In an appearance Thursday on Dan Patrick’s radio show, the former NBA superstar described executives at Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT, as “clowns” and “fools” and said that “morale sucks, plain and simple” when describing what the mood around the studio is like with such an uncertain future looming.

“We’re just sitting back and waiting on these people to figure out what they’re going to do,” Barkley said. “My two favorite wines are Inglenook and Opus. These clowns I work for, they’ve turned us into Ripple and Boone’s Farm and Thunderbird. Like, we got the best studio show, and it’s so funny, we just won the (Sports Emmy for) best studio show, but these fools turned us from Inglenook and Opus into damn Boone’s Farm and Ripple. It’s crazy.”

According to multiple reports, the NBA is finalizing deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon in what are the final stages of the league’s media rights negotiations.

It would mark the end of an era for TNT, which has broadcast NBA games since 1989, but appears to have been out-bid this cycle.

In April 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, Inc. after being sold by AT&T, a move that came with new leadership that Barkley said wasn’t as committed to retaining the network’s NBA rights.

“They came out and said ‘We don’t need the NBA,’” Barkley said. “I think that probably pissed (NBA commissioner) Adam (Silver) off. I don’t know that, but I’m saying … when we merged, that’s the first thing our boss said – ‘We don’t need the NBA.’ Well, he don’t need it, but the rest of the people — me, Shaq, Kenny and Ernie and the people who work there — need it. It just sucks right now.”

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For Barkley and others, another sign of the NBA’s imminent departure from TNT came Wednesday, when it was announced that TNT would be sublicensed to carry select College Football Playoff games beginning with this upcoming season.

“The people I work with, they’ve screwed this thing up, clearly,” Barkley said. “We have zero idea what’s going to happen. I don’t feel good, I’m not going to lie, especially when they came out yesterday and said ‘We bought college football.’ I was like ‘Well damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA.’”

For as bleak of a picture as Barkley’s interview with Patrick painted, it did offer some hope.

Barkley noted that he owns a production company, which could be used to sign the “Inside the NBA” cast to deals and market it to a potential buyer that’s part of the NBA’s new media rights package. Barkley said he has had conversations with his colleagues about the possibility.

“I would love to do that if we lose it,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Charles Barkley rips TNT leadership as 'clowns' and 'fools' for losing NBA rights