The NBA’s upcoming media rights deal will mark the end of its relationship with Turner Sports. While there are legal hurdles that need to be all sorted out, it appears that the league’s upcoming, 11-year media rights deal will feature ESPN, NBC, and Amazon as its three primary broadcast partner, with Turner finding itself on the outside looking in.
Despite this, Charles Barkley announced earlier in the week that he will remain with Turner — he signed a 10-year, $210 million deal with the network back in 2022, but gave himself the ability to leave if they lost the NBA. He announced that he would retire during the NBA Finals, then left the door open to go to another network, but ultimately, Barkley decided to stay. And while it’s unclear what his role will look like going forward, Barkley told Dan Patrick that the plan is for Inside the NBA to continue in some form or fashion.
“They said, ‘We’re gonna continued doing the show,’ I don’t have any idea what that means,” Barkley said before Patrick interjected and asked what they meant. “I think they’re gonna try to figure it out. We won’t have the NBA, so, I think they’re gonna try to figure it out. But my number one concern, Dan, has always been the people at Turner. So, even if we do something, a lot of people at Turner are going to keep their jobs. Like I said, Dan, I have zero idea what we’re gonna do.”
Barkley told Patrick that “they don’t have any concrete plans,” which is fine for now, as they have plenty of time to sort this all out — the NBA will be on TNT for this next season before the new deal kicks in. He did, however, stress that he doesn’t want a SportsCenter-type show that has them working every night.
