It's hard to imagine a world where Charles Barkley is not on TNT's Inside the NBA. The Hall of Famer retired from the NBA in 2000 and joined the show starting with the 2000-01 season. Though Ernie Johnson had been hosting since 1990, recurring analyst spots were rare. By 2000, Kenny Smith had only been an analyst for a couple of seasons, and we were still over a decade away from Shaquille O'Neal joining the crew.
Barkley quickly endeared himself to viewers by openly speaking his mind and sharing his sense of humor, and TNT realized it had a good thing going. As talks furthered around the NBA moving away from TNT and towards NBC and Amazon, the jobs of Barkley and everyone were up in the air.
Barkley ultimately decided to return to TNT for the 2024-25 season. In doing so he says he gave up "a minimum of $100 million."
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Current Contract & Salary
In 2020, Charles Barkley signed a 5-year, $30 million deal with TNT to continue as a co-host of "Inside the NBA." That worked out to a salary of $6 million per year. In October 2022, Charles signed a 10-year $100 million contract extension to remain at TNT. That works out to a salary of $10 million per year and would presumably keep him at the network through 2032. Based on his assertion that he gave up $100 million to not jump ship to a new network, it's presumable that Charles had some sort of opt-out in his contract, perhaps an option to leave if TNT lost broadcast rights to the NBA. If that's true, it's especially interesting and honorable that Charles chose to NOT exercise his option and sign a massive new deal with NBC/Amazon. At least, for now.
Giving Up $100 Million
Barkley recently joined The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz. The conversation turned to Barkley's career and potentially moving to a different network. Barkley said it was "humbling and cool" to be highly desired, with "crazy numbers" thrown his way, but he had another priority.
"The number one thing for me is that my people at Turner get to keep their jobs another year. That's all I was concerned with."
He also expressed gratitude toward TNT for letting him be himself.
"They're going to pay me to go talk about nothing, so I can't look a gift horse in the mouth. I probably would have had to do an honest day's work if I went to one of those other networks."
The media rights conversations are still ongoing, though it seems like the NBA will be back on NBC and debut on Amazon while returning to ABC and ESPN. TNT's parent company, Warner Discovery, initially balked at the figure that the NBA wanted, though we've heard claims from the two sides that they both have and have not matched Amazon's package.
Earlier this year, Barkley said this upcoming season would be his last. He's 61 and has been on TV for a quarter century—no wonder he's tired. But he seemed to walk those comments back a short while later, reaffirming his commitment to TNT and the ten-year deal he signed. He's only in year two, so if TNT does continue airing the show, expect to see Barkley on your screen for a while longer.
Here's the full clip of Barkley with LeBatard:
How much did Charles Barkley lose by returning to TNT?
"A minimum of $100 million. A minimum."
Barkley explains why he chose to return to Turner Sports as a broadcasting free agent.
"The number-one thing for me is that my people at Turner get to keep their jobs another year." pic.twitter.com/lGLZgg4nFZ
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 13, 2024
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