Charles Barkley’s very public crusade against Warner Bros. Discovery seemingly screwing up the rights to broadcast the NBA seems to have caused a bit of internal strife among his fellow “Inside The NBA” panelists.
When we last had an opportunity to hear Chuck unfiltered, Barkley went on the “Dan Patrick Show” and pretty ruthlessly tore into WBD CEO David Zaslav for potentially costing TNT the rights to NBA broadcasts and the future of “Inside The NBA” along with it — though he didn’t mention Zaslav by name, instead referring to the “clowns” running the company.
New York Times reporter Tania Ganguli went to follow up with Barkley and take the pulse of the show in Minnesota during the Western Conference Finals this week, only to be met with, shall we say, less than friendly reactions from the rest of the “Inside The NBA” panel.
Per the NYT:
Kenny Smith, Barkley’s on-screen foil, voiced his irritation. But Barkley, as he has done throughout his decades in the public eye, made clear that he wouldn’t be muzzled.
“Hey man, I can talk to who I want to,” Barkley said to Smith, using an expletive. Others in the elevator shifted uncomfortably.
“You should do that out there,” Smith said, suggesting the interview be done outside the elevator.
Barkley turned to me: “Don’t worry about him.”
“She should clear it through Turner,” Smith said. “She should do it the right way.”
Though, according to Barkley, his contract allows him to leave Turner if WBD loses NBA rights, he’s never needed a specific clause to let him speak his mind.
We know from his previous comments — and his thoughts in Ganguli’s story — that Barkley is mostly concerned for the rest of the NBA on TNT crew. The behind the scenes people who lift the show higher than even the panel can.
Yet all that has done inside the show is create a bit more tension.
Again, per Ganguli:
Before the pregame show on Friday, [Shaquille] O’Neal sat courtside and chatted with passers-by. Asked for an interview, he grinned and said, “We aren’t allowed to talk ever since Chuck’s outburst.” He might have been joking, though a public relations official with TNT said later that the cast had not been asked not to speak.
Approached for an interview, [Ernie] Johnson pointed me to the public relations team. TNT had declined to arrange interviews with its talent for this article. After the game, Johnson interrupted the interview with Barkley as he left the elevator to castigate me for approaching him without permission from the company.
Johnson is likely to stick with TNT regardless of what happens to the network’s NBA rights. He does plenty for Major League Baseball with Turner Sports, so it makes sense he’s a bit more defensive.
Overall, it just does not seem like a fun time on set right now — even though TNT still gets to broadcast the NBA all next season.
As Barkley told Dan Patrick, “morale sucks.”
