Charles Barkley joined The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Tuesday and discussed his decision to stay with TNT rather than retire or leave once they lose their NBA rights after next season. Barkley was considered a major sports media free agent and it wasn't hard to imagine Amazon, NBC or even ESPN offering him a huge contract to try and get him to leave Turner.
According to Barkley, we may have been underestimating just how badly one or more of those entities wanted him. Asked by Le Batard how much money he left on the table to stay with TNT and do an NBA-less version of Inside the NBA, Barkley said he gave up more than $100 million, which he was happy to do to protect the jobs of the people he currently works with.
How much did Charles Barkley lose by returning to TNT?
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 13, 2024
"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
"It was a great feeling and I want to thank all those networks for reaching out to me," Barkley told Le Batard. "It was really humbling and cool. It was humbling and cool. It was really humbling and cool to be honest with you. But I wasn't even thinking, like I said Dan, even though they were throwing crazy numbers, I was like damn. But, long as I got my people safe at TNT man, I feel really good. Like I say, they gonna pay me to go and talk about nothing so I don't want to look a gift horse in a mouth. Hey Dan, I probably would have had to do an honest day's work if I went to one of those other networks."
Just a couple weeks ago Barkley told Dan Patrick that he was three years into a 10-year contract worth $210 million. So if he means that he gave up $100 million extra, that means he was offered a deal worth over $310 million. Or if you figure he has around $150 million left over the next seven years, that means he was offered a fresh deal worth $250 million, which is such a nice round number it actually sounds like the kind of deal some aspiring network with future NBA rights might offer the greatest studio personality of all-time. Of course, these are all guesses and we'll probably never know the exact details now that they're nothing more than "talks" that never went anywhere.
These are just guesses, but it doesn't really matter. It would be even more reckless to look at Barkley saying something like "My people at Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year and that's all I was concerned with," and point out that they were already going to keep their jobs for another year because TNT doesn't lose the NBA until the end of the '24-'25 season. Keep in mind he's the one who said they shouldn't sue to try and keep their expiring rights.
While Barkley likes to point out they're going to pay him to talk about nothing, how is he going to feel when TNT actually loses the NBA? It wasn't that long ago Barkley was attempting to solicit offers from LIV and while he says helping people keep their jobs was all that mattered, he has also said there was zero chance of him taking a paycut. So what happens when circumstances change for Turner post-NBA?
We'll have to wait and see.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Charles Barkley Says He Gave Up $100 Million to Stay at Turner.
