Charles Barkley will stay inside the NBA as the program produced by TNT moves to ESPN next season, but that does not mean that he is happy with his current network.
“The people of TNT are stupid,” Barkley told former ESPN presenter and current radio presenter And Patrick this week.
The popular study show will appear in ESPN and ABC from next season as part of an agreement between Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA that was announced in November. Warner Bros. Discovery, the TNT Sports parent company, sued the NBA in the New York State Court in August after the League rejected the corresponding offer of the company for one of the packages in its new agreement of rights of rights of rights of The media of $ 76 billion, which will begin with 2025 -26 season.
Although within the NBA it will be in ESPN and ABC, TNT Sports will continue to produce the show. It will be broadcast from Atlanta, except when the show goes to the road. Barkley's quartet, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal will remain with the show. Barkley signed an extension with Warner Bros. Discovery in August despite the company lost domestic rights to the NBA.
“I could always have stayed on TNT,” Barkley told Patrick. 'But I put my contract, I could get out of there if they lost the NBA.
The problem, as Barkley sees it, was tried to discourage Amazon and NBC to make offers to Barkley to obtain the rights of the NBA national media on the 11 -year -old aforementioned agreement and $ 76 billion.
Barkley will stay with the interior of the NBA as the TNT program moves ESPN next season
“You know, it's really fun, TNT people are stupid,” he continued. 'They wrote a card of cessation and withdrawal to Amazon and NBC and really bothered me. They are trying to say that they exchanged my program to ESPN and that is the same as they maintained them. I'm like, I don't think it's how it works.
“We were having some heated discussions behind the scene in Atlanta,” Barkley said. 'They sent a cessation and withdrawal letter to NBC and Amazon saying that it was not available. I thought, that is not the way my contract reads.
'Everyone lost the NBA, if I wanted to leave, I could leave. That is the bone of the discussion. They are like, 'no, you are under contract'. I said: 'I will risk in court and I feel very good with my possibilities in court. Because regardless of what they say, they give, they change us to ESPN, they are not the same as us under contract with TNT.
Dailymail.com has communicated with Warner Bros. Discovery spokesman to comment.
Barkley has been a critic for a long time of ESPN, its NBA coverage and the general atmosphere of the network.
“The times have changed, Kenny,” he told Smith in November while arguing the reports of the ESPN agreement. “We have to kiss our ass.”
There are many other changes in the NBA media panorama that go to the next season.
Shaquille O'Neal (Left), Ernie Johnson (left center), Kenny Smith (right center) and Barkley
Mike Tirico has been officially appointed as the main game broadcaster for NBC game when his league coverage begins in 2025-26.
The measure is not a surprise, since many expected that to happen when NBC agreed an 11 -year contract with the NBA last summer. Tyrico was part of the coverage of the ESPN and ABC League until he moved to NBC in July 2016. He also called six NBA finals in ESPN Radio.
According to the research of the SPORTS 506 file, Tyrico called 313 regular seasonal games and NBA playoffs in ESPN and ABC.
Tyrico will have another busy section of 10 months from September to May 2026. Calls the package 'Sunday Night Football', which will include the Super Bowl 60, and will lead the coverage of the NBC Olympic Games as the host of Milan-Cortina Winter Games .
Tyrico will call selected games in NBC and Peacock the first half of the season, including the first game of the season in October.
NBC, which took the NBA games from 1990 to 2002, will have up to 100 regular seasonal games, even Sunday night once the NFL season has finished. He will also have games on Tuesday during the regular season, while a double head on Monday night would be transmitted exclusively in Peacock. NBC will also have the game of stars and All-Star Saturday Night.
Shaquille O'Neal, 51, and Ernie Johnson, 67, have worked together for about a dozen years
During the playoffs, NBC and/or Peacock they will have up to 28 games in the first two rounds, with at least half in NBC. It will also carry one of the two conference finals in six of the 11 years of the agreement.
With the All-Star game at less than a month away, the hiring cycle for NBC, ESPN/ABC and Prime Video for next season is expected to increase.
NBC previously announced that Jamal Crawford will be a game analyst and Frank Digraci will serve as a coordinating producer, while the main video called Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki to his study show.
Noah Eagle is also expected to carry out university football, university basketball and some NFL games, it is part of NBC's coverage even though an announcement has not been made. Jalen Rose is an university basketball analyst at NBC/Peacock, but has experience in NBA Studio and Analyst since its time with ESPN/ABC.