Charles Barkley Blasts TNT for How He Had to Find Out About ESPN Deal

Inside The NBA will live on despite TNT being on the verge of losing NBA rights for the foreseeable future. The news broke last week that ESPN had worked out a deal to acquire the hit NBA show for its broadcasts beginning with the 2025-26 season. And Charles Barkley is not pleased with how everything went down.

Speaking on the Bettor Angle show with Kate Constable and Gabe Ramirez, Barkley expressed his view that employees of Turner have been treated worse and worse with each subsequent merger. He then went on to slam the current leadership of the company for not letting him know about the ESPN deal; Barkely apparently found out from welcome texts sent from friends of his at the Worldwide Leader.

"I’ll tell you what’s fun. They haven’t even told us we lost the NBA,” said Barkley (via Awful Announcing). “We have to hear it through the media. And even this thing with ABC/ESPN, I heard about it on the internet. Scott Van Pelt, Brian Windhorst, Elle Duncan, Bob Myers, all friends of mine who I really like a lot. They texted me welcoming me to the ESPN family. I’m like, what happened? TNT didn’t even have the courtesy.

"Basically we got traded. If I was going to trade somebody that I had respect for and appreciate, I would at least give them a heads up. I wouldn’t let them hear about it from other people or the internet."

His outrage is understandable. But it also lines up that he heard from outside sources before TNT. The news that ESPN was acquiring the show was first reported on November 17 and the official announcement did not come until November 18.

Barkley has been with Turner for over 20 years and has been consistently complimentary about how he's been treated there on the whole. He has also been consistently taking shots at the current leadership for the NBA rights debacle and the consequences it would bring to the Inside The NBA team outside of the main cast.

Fortunately for all, ESPN and TNT were able to work out a deal that preserves the beloved show for the next stage of NBA broadcasting.