Charles Barkley Says TNT Will Keep Doing 'Inside The NBA' Despite Losing TV Rights Next Year

Charles Barkley has confirmed the recent reports suggesting that he won't be retiring from television following the upcoming NBA season and will instead stay on board with TNT. While the seven years remaining on his $210 million contract undoubtedly played a role in his decision to stay with the network, watching his bank account grow wasn't the key reason he has elected to keep working.

Barkley first announced that he would be retiring following the 2024-25 NBA season during this year's NBA Finals in June. While most didn't believe him given the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be left on the table, TNT is set to lose the broadcasting rights to the NBA following the upcoming season, which would mean ‘Inside The NBA’ would likely be no more and Barkley would essentially be forced into some new, non-NBA related role.

It turns out that TNT doesn't seem to care about the stark reality that the network will be facing after the season. Not only is the network suing the NBA to enforce its non-compete agreement, but its executives told Barkley that it will continue to do ‘Inside The NBA’ even after losing TV rights with the league.

"TNT, they flew to Philly last week, and I said ‘what’s the deal' and they said ‘hey, we’re going to keep doing the show (Inside The NBA),' Barkley explained on ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ on Thursday morning. When Patrick asked what does that mean, keep doing the show, Barkley laughed and said "that's what I said."

"So I said ‘y’all know that my number one priority is to keep people working at Turner,' that's always been my number one priority and Dan, they said they're going to keep doing the show."

Charles Barkley won't be retiring and claims TNT will continue to do some form of 'Inside The NBA' despite losing TV rights to the league.  (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)

Barkley went on to explain that he offered to take a pay cut, but the network explained that it wasn't necessary. 

"I think they're going to try and figure it out," Barkley said when Patrick pressed him on what exactly keep ‘keep doing the show' meant. "We won't have the NBA, so I think they're going to try and figure it out, but my number one concern has been keeping people employed with Turner."

Barkley emphasized the importance of keeping people employed with the network by sharing that he's going to be giving around 50 people who work on ‘Inside The NBA’ $5,000 cash and is looking for a way to sidestep the U.S. government so they don't have to pay taxes on their bonus.