Charles Barkley rips TNT for lack of communication: ‘I told ‘em they sucked'

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2 days ago

Charles Barkley genuinely enjoyed working to TNT for 25 years. But it was the network's lack of communication about 'Inside the NBA' potentially moving to ESPN that irked hm.
'I'll tell you something really (expletive) about it too: I found out that we got traded to ESPN from ESPN,' Barkley said during a recent appearance on the 'Pardon My Take' podcast.
Barkley said he received a text message from Scott Van Pelt, Brian Windhorst, Elle Duncan and Bob Myers welcoming him to the ESPN family.
'I'm like, 'what family? What are you talking about?,'' he said.
Barkley received a call from TNT about 90 minutes later informing him of what he already knew.
'I said, 'Well you probably could have gave us a heads up.' I said, 'you traded us to ESPN and we have to hear about it on the internet. ... That's just not the way you do business,'' Barkley noted.
For months, there was speculation about TNT losing its NBA rights, but the network did, in Barkley's words, 'an awful job' keeping the employees updated on what was going on.
'One story said we lost it. The next story said we still in negotiation. Then we lost it. We're still in negotiations,' Barkley recalled. 'And TNT never came to us, like grown folks and said, 'Hey guys, we're probably going to lose the NBA,' which we could have understood.'
'I told 'em they sucked. Because there's a way you treat people,' he continued. 'Because if they had have came to us and said, 'Hey, you know what, it's a lot of money.' Because we were paying $1.2 billion a year and it went to $2.5 billion. That's a lot of money for 11 years. If they had said 'it's not a good deal,' we would've understood.'
The NBA signed an 11-year media rights deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon. The deal — rumored to be worth at least $76 million —will keep games on ESPN and ABC.
Barkley, Earnie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal will remain with 'Inside the NBA' — on the air with TNT since 1989 — when it moves to ESPN beginning the 2025-26 season.
Barkley originally was going to step away from television after TNT lost its media rights, but he will remain with his longtime TNT co-workers as the four-man crew shifts to ESPN.
'Inside the NBA' will handle pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of the NBA Finals on ABC, conference finals and the NBA Playoffs. During the regular season, it will be part of opening week coverage, as well as Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1, the final week of the season and other marquee events.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
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Read the original article on MassLive.