‘They know better,’ Charles Barkley warns TNT execs over talks with ‘disturbed’ NBA legend about future outbursts

CHARLES Barkley has claimed his NBA bosses at TNT “know better” than to bother him with their public rants.

Barkley, 61, has publicly expressed his frustration with TNT’s handling of the NBA’s media rights deal after the upcoming season.

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TNT appears poised to lose its package with NBC and Amazon joining alongside ESPN as broadcasters in the league.

And that means the immensely popular show Inside the NBA, which Barkley is a part of, will end in its current form after the 2024-25 season.

Barkley has been vocal both on air and in interviews about how unhappy he is with the situation.

But the former NBA star isn’t worried about TNT executives reaching out to him over his comments.

And he also took aim at Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav for comments made in 2022.

WBD owns TNT, and Zaslav said in 2022 that the company did not need the NBA rights.

Talking about your bosses at Podcast “SI media with Jimmy Traina”Barkley said: “Number one, they’re not going to call me – they know better.

“Secondly, he (Zaslav) should never have said that. Clear and simple.

“I think this is our third negotiation and we always sign in the exclusivity window.

It never showed up for bidding. Clearly Adam (Silver, NBA commissioner) is upset. I assume he’s upset.

“Something is going on, to be honest with you, because if we had the right to match, it would be simple – ‘yes, we’ll match’ or ‘we won’t match’.

“That’s what bothers us the most.”

Barkley openly joked on air about being busy filling out job applications in a nod to TNT losing the NBA rights.

The question came up again in Thursday night’s coverage of the NBA Western Conference Finals.

The Dallas Mavericks wrapped up a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves to clinch their spot in the NBA Finals.

This brought an end to TNT’s coverage for this season with the NBA Finals airing on ABC beginning June 6.

Inside NBA host Ernie Johnson signed on to the network’s coverage for 2023-24 on Thursday night.

“I can’t wait for next season, it’s going to be amazing,” he said.

And Barkley responded, “Did Ernie say ‘blast’ or ‘last one’?”

A recent report also claimed that things are tense between the Inside the NBA stars behind the scenes.

Barkley insisted on speaking to a New York Times reporter earlier this week, which reportedly angered her co-stars.

Kenny Smith “expressed his irritation” in the interview and told Barkley he should release the interview through TNT Sports, according to the report.