Charles Barkley is getting his LinkedIn profile ready – and has been for a while.
Amid ongoing reports that his network may lose the rights to broadcast NBA games starting in the 2025-2026 season, the TNT basketball analyst joked that he might have to take advantage of the employment-focused social media platform, with the implication that he and his ‘Inside the NBA’ co-hosts could soon be out of a job during a May 19 broadcast of the show.
More than two weeks later, Barkley made a similar comment on the Sirius XM radio show “Beadle & Decker” Tuesday.
“I’m putting together my LinkedIn profile, so I can call you all,” Barkley told co-hosts Michelle Beadle and Cody Decker. “Maybe I’ll put you all on my resume. Is that cool?”
“Maybe” was the key word, as there has still been no official announcement about what will happen to the league’s broadcast rights if the current deal with TNT parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN parent company Disney after next season ends.
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The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the league is “close” to a deal to broadcast its games on NBC, ESPN and Amazon, which would leave TNT out of the picture for the first time since 1989. As of Tuesday, however, Barkley said he had not heard a word from his employer about whether the show he has appeared on since 2000 will end next year.
“That’s the one thing that really bothered me the most about the TNT experience,” said Barkley, who co-hosts “Inside the NBA” with Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith. “So, man, just tell us something. ‘Cause, you know, every day there’s an article coming out about everyone saying we still got a chance or we lost it. I’m like, yeah man, y’all see us every pick up the phone every week and say, “Hey, we’re still negotiating” or “you know what, we’ve lost it.”
‘Just the truth. Because the only thing that really sucks is that we have to do this next year anyway.”
Barkley has been making the same point for weeks. On May 23, he made no attempt to hide his anger during an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” telling Patrick that “morale is bad” among those at “Inside the NBA” and referring to his employers at TNT as ‘clowns’ and ‘fools’.
Barkley’s conversation with Patrick came a day after TNT announced a deal with ESPN to broadcast some College Football Playoff games starting in the 2024 season.
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“You know, these people that I work with have clearly screwed this thing up, and we have no idea what’s going to happen,” Barkley said. “I don’t feel good, I’m not going to lie, especially when they came out yesterday and said we bought college football. I thought, damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA.”
Barkley added, “We’re just waiting for these people to figure out what they’re going to do.”
On an episode of the “SI Media with Jimmy Traina” podcast a week later, Barkley expressed similar frustrations about being kept in the dark about the future of his show.
“Just say, ‘Hey guys, we’re in the middle of negotiations. It’s 50-50.’ Just say something,” Barkley said. “I mean, we haven’t talked about it. And not even just for me. The people who work there. They are the ones who work with pins and needles. Just say something so people can breathe for a moment. I can’t imagine having a family and bills because realistically you’ll probably have to look for another job.
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He added: “Just call me and say, ‘Hey, you know what? It goes well.’ ‘It’s not going well.’ …I’d consider that better than not hearing anything.
Barkley reiterated to Beadle and Decker that calling him would be the best way to tell him the news, especially if it is bad news.
“If they fire me personally and I lose all that money, I might just rip someone’s neck off,” he said, laughing. “It’s probably best if they call me from a distance.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
