Charles Barkley could become a massive TV free agent after this NBA season, according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Amid NBA media rights negotiations involving Turner, NBC and Amazon, Barkley could be sought after if it does not remain the same. According to Barkley, who revealed this to ESPN, he has an opt out clause if TNT loses its NBA rights.
Barkley revealed this intriguing nugget on The Really Big Show Wednesday.
“I just signed a 10-year deal two years ago,” Barkley said, “But one of the things I did was I put an opt-out after a couple years because I wanted to cover my ass when it comes to this situation.”
ESPN is still in position to maintain the top NBA package, according to McCarthy. The rest of the networks? Well, it’s a fight.
“The NBA’s existing deals with TNT and ESPN expire after the league’s 2024-2025 season,” McCarthy wrote. “While ESPN is in pole position to retain the league’s “A” package, including the NBA Finals, and Amazon is reportedly poised to snare an exclusive streaming package, TNT could be shut out by former NBA TV partner NBC Sports. NBC parent Comcast is willing to pay $2.5 billion per year for those rights, according to The Wall Street Journal. (TNT currently pays $1.2 billion per year.)”
If TNT is out, and NBC, Amazon and ESPN are in, the three networks could compete to lure Barkley. The NBA Hall of Famer is one of the top analysts and sports personalities in television.
“As a free agent, Barkley, at 61, could draw offers of $18 million to $20 million annually, my sources predict,” McCarthy wrote. “It’s a smart bet that ESPN, Amazon, and NBC would all vie for his services. Barkley’s current 10-year deal with TNT pays him upwards of $100 million, according to the New York Post.”
ESPN would target Barkley for NBA Countdown, the prime competitor for TNT’s top rated show Inside the NBA.
“ESPN has lusted after Barkley for years, frequently turning over the cast of NBA Countdown,” McCarthy wrote. “The 1993 NBA MVP is tight with Michael Wilbon, co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, who worked with Barkley on his 2003 biography.
“And ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro has shown that he will pay what it takes for top talent: He signed a five-year, $85 million deal to land Pat McAfee’s eponymous weekday show, and he’s paying an eye-popping $165 million over five years to Troy Aikman and Joe Buck to call Monday Night Football.”
Let’s not forget, Amazon Prime has plenty of money to throw at Barkley.
“If Prime followed its Thursday Night Football gameplan, it could make Barkley the centerpiece of a traditional NBA studio show very much like Inside the NBA,” McCarthy wrote. “And if there’s any doubt that Barkely would sign with a relative upstart, don’t forget: He flirted with the deep-pocketed LIV Golf before re-upping with TNT in 2022.”
McCarthy also wrote Inside the NBA cast would be practically done with Ernie Smith staying with the network, Kenny Smith possibly returning to a front office and Shaquille O’Neal just remaining a commercial figure.
The upcoming deal could change NBA viewing habits for the foreseeable future and it all centers around Barkley.
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