Charles Barkley once claimed he wasn’t a role model. But his most recent action seems to belie that. Barkley said on the Dan Le Batard Show podcast today that he left a minimum of $100 million “on the table” to stay with Turner Sports.
His decision to remain with Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports division came after TNT was left out of the NBA’s 11-year media rights deal.
Since TNT Sports lost that contract scrum, the NBA’s upcoming 2024-25 season will be its last with TNT, as the league moves on in 2025-26 to the NBA’s new 11-year deal for games with ESPN parent The Walt Disney Company, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video. “The No.
1 thing for me is my people from Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year,” Barkley, told Le Batard. “That’s all I was concerned with.” The decision was not easy.
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