The Daily Populous Friday August 16th, 2024 day edition
Authored by people.com and submitted by Fluffy-Call1399

Charles Barkley proved again he's a team player.

On Wednesday, Aug. 14, the NBA legend revealed on the Dan Le Batard Show podcast 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.

"The No. 1 thing for me is my people from Turner get to keep their jobs for at least another year," Barkley, 61, told host Dan Le Batard. "That's all I was concerned with."

Due to the new agreement, Barkley's possible exit was contractually sound. But he told Le Batard, 55, that he wants to remain with TNT. However, he admitted that it “100% was a great feeling” to get offers from outside networks recruiting the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer.

"I want to thank all of those networks for reaching out to me," the two-time NBA Hall of Famer said. "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."

"Like I say, they're going to pay me to go and talk about nothing," Barkley said, adding a quip, "I probably would've had to do an honest day's work if I went to one of those other networks."

Charles Barkley on December 7, 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike Kirschbaum/NBAE via Getty

Barkley signed a 10-year deal with TNT Sports in 2022. He has served as a commentator on the channel for the award-winning NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA, the latter of which he co-hosts with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal.

In late July, TNT Sports lost the NBA's media rights after the league declined Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer, which matched Amazon’s offer, per CNN. As a result, the NBA's upcoming 2024-25 season will be the last with TNT.

The NBA’s new 11-year deal with ESPN parent company The Walt Disney Company, NBC and Amazon Prime Video will begin in the 2025-26 season. The deal is expected to garner $76 billion.

“We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA,” the league said in a statement, according to USA Today. “(We) look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT.”

TNT responded that they will be taking "legal action" on the situation, per Sports Illustrated.

Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley on June 26, 2017 in New York City. Michael Loccisano/Getty

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Barkley also responded to the deal in a July 26 statement on Instagram.

"It's a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks,” he wrote. "I just want to thank everyone who has been at Turner for the last 24 years. They are the best people and the most talented and they deserve better. I also want to thank the NBA and its fans - the best fans in sports. We're going to give you everything we have next season.”

KinshasaPR on August 15th, 2024 at 16:31 UTC »

I remember Ernie Johnson doing an interview and mentioning how much charitable work Chuck does, that doesn't make the press because he doesn't want it to. He's made mistakes, but he's always been honest about them, making amends and trying to be a better person. He's real class!

RWD-by-the-Sea on August 15th, 2024 at 16:09 UTC »

Tangential, but I feel like this story is also a great example of who Barkley is:

https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley

Waldo_McFly on August 15th, 2024 at 15:03 UTC »

In the early 90’s I was living in Arizona and my brother was in Alabama. He got kidnapped from his job during robbery. Crack heads took him into the woods along with his boss. Shot them both multiple times. My brother somehow survived. His boss didn’t. Afterwords few months later I was holding a fundraiser for my brother at the restaurant I worked at. Had a little bit of news coverage but somehow in walks Charles Barkley up from Phoenix with an arm full of signed gear and such for us to auction off. Stuck around to sign autographs and mingle. Total class act