Charles Barkley is not holding back his frustration with TNT after learning about the network’s loss of NBA broadcast rights and the future of Inside the NBA.
During an appearance on the Pardon My Take podcast, the Hall of Famer said he was never directly informed by Warner Bros. Discovery executives that TNT was likely to lose its long-running NBA package.
“TNT never came to us like grown folks,” Barkley said, via ClutchPoints, adding that he only found out about the network’s sub-licensing deal with ESPN through a third party — ESPN itself.
The longtime analyst, who joined Inside the NBA in 2000, called the network’s handling of the situation “s—y” and said executives failed to treat the talent with the respect they deserved.
Warner Bros. Discovery lost out on renewing exclusive NBA rights, with ESPN and Amazon Prime Video emerging as primary partners under the league’s next media deal beginning in 2025–26.
Though Inside the NBA is expected to continue airing on ESPN and ABC through a licensing agreement between Disney and Warner Bros., Barkley made it clear the transition has been rocky behind the scenes.
He acknowledged the financial challenge of the deal — pointing out that TNT was paying $1.2 billion annually, while the new rights cost nearly double at $2.5 billion — but said the issue wasn’t money, it was communication.
“We would have understood,” Barkley said, “but to let us hear about it [from outside]… I thought they sucked.”
Barkley’s remarks echo a wider concern about the future of Inside the NBA, which has been on air since 1989 and is widely considered one of the most iconic sports studio shows on television.
The program, hosted by Ernie Johnson with Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal, has won 19 Sports Emmy Awards and built a loyal fan base over decades.
As of now, the show is expected to return next season under the TNT Sports brand but will appear on ESPN and ABC, a highly unusual arrangement that reflects the shifting media landscape around sports broadcasting.
