1. TNT just finished airing its final regular season after a 36-year run with the NBA. Once the playoffs are completed, TNT will be done with the NBA. TNT’s iconic studio show, though, featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, will continue on.
Inside the NBA will remain a TNT production; however, the show will air on ABC/ESPN instead of TNT. ESPN, supposedly, will have nothing to do with the show. The deal calls for ESPN to only air the show on its network.
How does Charles Barkley feel about the ESPN-TNT deal? I asked him that question on the latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina.
“The only thing I’m working out now is trying to figure out the length of my deal,” said Barkley. “I have seven years left on my deal. There’s no f---ing way I’m working for seven years. I’ll be honest with you; I’ve been going back and forth with TNT for the last few months. I said, I think I can give you guys two years. They were like, can you give us three. I said, guys, I really want this thing to work for everybody, but I’m not just gonna keep working for the hell of it.”
Barkley further explained, “I’m happy with everything except the length. I’m just trying to figure out if I’m gonna do two or three years. That’s the only holdup right now. There’s no way I would go seven years.”
While Barkley is happy with everything on the ESPN end, he’s far from thrilled with the TNT part of this unusual deal.
“TNT wants to do some stuff, too,” Barkley revealed. “We’re gonna do a pilot this week. I guess they don’t want to pay us to do absolutely nothing. So my thing is, wait a minute. The ESPN schedule, ABC/ESPN, I don’t think it’s gonna be crazy. But we’re not doing all those other damn shows. I want to make that perfectly clear.
“It’s an honor and privilege to work for ESPN, but I’m not gonna be going on First Take, Get Up, SportsCenter, Pat McAfee. That s--t isn’t gonna happen. That was my first gripe, to be honest with you.”
“Secondly, O.K,. TNT says, guys we wanna try to do something. But what does that mean. They’re like, we wanna do something with you four guys. I’m like, that’s not an answer to my question. What are we gonna do? Well, we’re gonna try to do something with you four guys like every week or every couple of weeks. That’s not an answer to my question.”
The lack of information from TNT and potential for extra work is not sitting well with Barkley.
“We’re gonna tape the first pilot this week and see what happens,” said Barkley. “It goes back to my original point. Are we gonna be working for ESPN/ABC and TNT, and it’s gonna double our workload? That’s not going to happen. We’re not gonna keep the same TNT schedule AND work for ABC/ESPN. That’s not gonna happen.”
What also isn’t happening is Barkley leaving TNT. There had been speculation that Amazon, which will be a new NBA partner in the 2025-26 season, and NBC, who will be back in business with the NBA next season, would pursue Barkley.
During the podcast, Barkley shed light on what happened with both of those outlets.
“Amazon, they didn’t get anywhere,” Barkley divulged. “We had a couple of meetings, but didn’t get anywhere.
“I got a firm offer from NBC. I like NBC because my old boss, Mark Lazarus, hired me at Turner. But they had too much stuff for me to do. They started out two nights a week, then when football’s over, they went to three nights a week. Then they have the Kentucky Derby, they had the Olympics. I was like, yeah, that’s not gonna happen. Even though they offered me more money, it wasn’t worth it for me from a work standpoint.”
You can listen to the full interview with Barkley on SI Media With Jimmy Traina below. Other topics discussed include Barkley’s regret over using the term “big ol’ b----es” last week when referring to San Antonio women, his thoughts on Stephen A. Smith running for President, the NBA playoffs and much more.
You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated's YouTube channel.
2. When I checked the schedule for the first weekend of the NBA playoffs, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no late games for those of us on the East Coast. Bucks-Pacers tips at 1 p.m., Clippers-Nuggets at 3:30 p.m., Pistons-Knicks at 6 p.m. and Timberwolves-Lakers at 8:30 p.m. That is a PERFECT Saturday schedule.
However, my good mood took a quick turn when I saw the joke that is taking place on Sunday. The Magic and Celtics will play at 3:30 p.m. A sane and rational person would then believe that the Warriors and Rockets would tip off at either 7:30 p.m or 8 p.m. Nope. For some unknown reason, the NBA decided to have Golden State-Houston tip off at 9:30 p.m. ON A SUNDAY NIGHT.
I would expect nonsense like this from MLB, not the NBA.
3. Another absolutely insane Caitlin Clark ratings stat. This year’s WNBA draft, which aired Monday night drew 1.25 million viewers. That was down 49% from last season’s draft, which drew 2.45 million viewers.
The 2025 #WNBADraft on ESPN delivered the second most-viewed WNBA Draft ever, averaging 1.25M viewers👏
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 15, 2025
🏀 1.46M peak
🏀 Most-viewed program across ALL TV among M18-34, M18-49 & P18-34
🏀 Top cable program among M25-54, P18-49 & P25-54 pic.twitter.com/io5HdjpuSF
4. Here’s what I wrote in Traina Thoughts last Wednesday:
“I fought this crusade last year and I’m going to fight it again this year. Over-the-top, gluttonous food concoctions at sporting events make for great clickbait on social media, but are completely impractical in reality. (And kinda gross, but that’s subjective.)”
What we saw during Tuesday’s Grizzlies-Warriors game wasn’t gluttonous or over-the-top. It was just flat-out strange. How on earth can you eat spaghetti at a sporting event?
Nothing like going to a NBA game and enjoying a ice cold beer and a hot plate of spaghetti pic.twitter.com/pn9dNmKzMa
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) April 16, 2025
There’s a chance that could be some sort of Asian noodle dish, but I stand by my take. What happened to hot dogs, nachos and popcorn?
5. If you’ve been reading me since the old Hot Clicks days, you know that I often say that one of the best things about baseball, compared to other sports, is that you regularly see things you’ve never seen before.
Cut to Tuesday’s Cubs-Padres game. San Diego’s Manny Machado homered in the fifth inning to break a scoreless tie after the Cubs dropped not one, but TWO foul pop-ups during the at bat.
The Cubs dropped two foul pop-ups in the same at-bat, which ended in a Manny Machado home run pic.twitter.com/cBDgbTXl4G
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 16, 2025
6. I think you’re not supposed to say this or not allowed to say this, but the whole thing with Bill Belichick and his girlfriend is just so weird. This story, via The Athletic, about Belichick’s girlfriend having to be cc’d on all of his University of North Carolina emails is just bizarre.
Remember when Bill Belichick asked a UNC administrator to copy his girlfriend on emails?
— Matt Baker (@MattBakerCFB) April 15, 2025
I requested and read those emails. They include concerns about social media harassment, the optics of hiring Steve Belichick and this pic.twitter.com/8Dz7MQ06qK
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: It’s WrestleMania Week, so I’ll give you guys some vintage clips over the next few days. We start with WrestleMania IX, when Randy Savage beat Ted DiBiase to win his first WWE Championship. The broadcasting work here by Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura was as good as it gets.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Charles Barkley on Turning Down NBC, Current Contract Issues With ESPN/TNT.
