Charles Barkley insisted he could talk to anyone, despite pressure from colleagues to get permission from Warner Bros. Discovery executives before speaking to reporters about TNT’s possible loss of the NBA.
Barkley has long been a fixture on TNT’s signature “Inside the NBA” show, but Warner Bros. Discovery has not secured the rights to broadcast NBA games on the network after its current deal expires next season.
The New York Times Reporter Tania Ganguly I caught up with the “Inside the NBA” crew at the Western Conference Finals in Minneapolis, where she said security and publicists “were [Barkley] No interview allowed,” but the outspoken presenter didn’t stay quiet when co-host Kenny Smith “expressed his annoyance about it.”
“Hey, I can talk to anybody,” Barkley told Smith in a crowded elevator, according to Ganguli, who also said Barkley used profanity.
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Charles Barkley claimed he could talk to anyone. (Mark J. Rebillas-USA Today Sports)
Smith told Barkley he should at least talk to the Times reporter outside the elevator.
“Don’t worry about him,” Barkley told Ganguly, according to Ganguly’s article.
According to the Times reporter, Smith urged Barclay to “work it through Turner” and “do it the right way” rather than force her to speak against the wishes of her company’s superiors.
Ganguly said Barkley told the Times he wanted to speak out because TNT’s potential departure from the NBA would affect “people’s lives.”
“We probably have about 100 people who work on the show. These are real people. They’ve seen their kids be born, graduate from high school, graduate from college,” Barkley said.
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Charles Barkley has long been a key figure on TNT’s signature show “Inside the NBA,” but Warner Bros. Discovery has not secured the rights to broadcast NBA games on the network after its current deal expires next season. (David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
The wildly popular “Inside the NBA,” which has aired on TNT since 1989 and features host Ernie Johnson and commentators Shaquille O’Neal, Barkley and Smith, has long been a must-watch show for sports fans. Disney, NBC and Amazon are widely expected to make bids to outbid TNT.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav famously said after the Discovery/WarnerMedia merger that the company “doesn’t need to have the NBA” in 2022. While the comment was likely some kind of negotiating tactic, it clearly resonated with Barkley.
“When we merged, the first thing the boss said was, ‘We don’t need the NBA,'” Barkley told the Times.
“Well, he doesn’t need it,” he continued, “but me, Kenny, Shaq, Ernie and the guys who work there do.”
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Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Barclay is outspoken, his colleagues are not keen to speak out outside the school.
According to Ganguly, O’Neill told the Times that staff “have been forbidden from speaking since Chuck’s outburst,” but Ganguly noted that O’Neill may have been joking because “a TNT spokesperson later said that cast members had not been told not to speak.”
Ganguli wrote that Johnson scolded a Times reporter for approaching him for an interview without authorization.
In addition to his “Inside the NBA” stint, Barkley, who recently co-hosted a short-lived CNN show with Gayle King, has previously criticized executives at Warner Bros. Discovery regarding the network’s ratings.
“Someone new has taken over and it’s a mess,” Barkley said on the Mike Missanelli Podcast last week.
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