NBA legend Charles Barkley made sure that the staff at TNT were able to keep their jobs.
According to reports, Barkley turned down a $100 million offer to keep the production team employed. He spoke about his choice to renew his contract with the Sports Network and said that his team was the motivation behind his decision.
“The No. 1 thing for me is my people from Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year,” he said during a podcast interview. He added that he was also getting offers from outside networks who tried to recruit him. “I want to thank all of those networks for reaching out to me… it was really humbling and cool, to be honest with you. Even though they were throwing crazy numbers, like damn, but as long as I got my people safe at TNT man, I feel really good.”
Barkley joined the TNT team in 2002 analyst on Inside the NBA. In 2022, he signed a 10-year deal with TNT Sports, where is it expected that he will continue to share the spotlight with his co-hosts, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson.
However, the network recently lost its contract with the NBA after being in partnership for 34 years. The NBA will now be featured on ESPN’s parent network The Walt Disney Company, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC in a new 11-year deal starting in the 2025-2026 season.