Charles Barkley Thinks Adam Silver Did ‘A Great Job For The Players’ With Media Deal, Despite Frustration TNT Got Left Out

Charles Barkley has been extremely vocal about his frustrations with the NBA’s new national media rights deal in which the league chose NBC and Amazon’s offers over TNT’s, ending a decades-long partnership with Turner Sports. While TNT tried matching Amazon’s offer, the league declined, noting that while they matched the financials, they cannot meet what Amazon is offering in totality in terms of reach and streaming. Warner Bros. Discovery could take the league to court over all of it, but it’s highly unlikely anything changes beyond a potential financial settlement between the two sides.

As such, Inside the NBA is likely to end as we know it after next season, as Ernie Johnson is expected to stay at Turner no matter what, while the futures of Barkley, Shaq, and Kenny Smith are more in flux. Barkley has ripped the league for, what he felt, was not giving TNT a fair chance to stay in the package, even though his ire should likely be directed at David Zaslav and company for trying to play hardball in the exclusive negotiating window and not realizing what other networks would offer.

However, despite those frustrations with how things ended up for his employer, Barkley is able to set that aside to understand why Adam Silver went about it the way he did. Barkley joined Sirius XM NBA Radio to discuss the deal, and praised Silver for getting a “great deal for the owners and players”, reminding everyone that he works for the owners first and foremost.

“I have not. I’m gonna reach out to him at some point,” said Barkley. “Because you know I love Adam Silver. I think he’s fantastic. But also, I understand he works for the owners and the players. And, hey, this is a great deal for the owners and the players. Do I think this is the best thing for the fans? No, I do not. But, I hate when people go off on commissioners in sports…Their No. 1 job is the owners. They work for the owners. Their second job is to work for the players.

“And, hey, regardless of what happened with Turner, whatever, he did a great job for these players. And for the next 11 years, they’re going to make more money than they could ever spend. I hope they use it the right way, in their communities and their families, and things like that. But Adam, I got a lot of respect for Adam.”

Barkley is right, and it’s often something fans miss in their criticism of commissioners. Their bosses are the owners, and their job is to make them the most money. While they certainly have responsibilities to the players and fans, that’s secondary to the bottom line, and in this case it’s hard to argue Silver didn’t get the absolute most out of negotiations. The league really wanted to add a streaming partner in this deal as a third party, and bringing in Amazon at a big number, while still getting NBC to pay double what TNT was under the old deal was pretty incredible work — especially for all the hand-wringing about ratings, which often fails to recognize the greater context of TV ratings as a whole.