Charles Barkley is one of the coupleof tv characters whose renowned Hall of Fame-caliber profession in his private sport insomeway ended up eclipsed (even if ever-so-slightly) by his profession on TELEVISION. That’s how transcendent Barkley’s time on Inside the NBA has been.
That’s why it came as rather a shock when Barkley revealed his retirement from tv over the weekend on NBA TV.
The timing was specifically unusual thinkingabout that Turner Sports is negotiating with the NBA to possibly keep some part of the league’s broadcast on the network. He’s voiced his disappointments with the settlements and appeared to have still been all-in on Inside the NBA and his team.
Barkley would unquestionably be a big part of Turner’s pitch to the NBA, and now, intheory, he’s not there anylonger. So where do things go from here? Is Barkley seriously even retiring?
We can just take him at his word for it. But, if he doesn’t retire, he’ll definitely have more than a coupleof choices for his next relocation.
Let’s talk about a coupleof of them here.
Amazon Prime
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This is the relocation that everybody believes Barkley might end up making, even if he does retire.
Amazon is apparently one of the entities getting a piece of the NBA’s broadcast rights in the league’s next tv offer. The workedout offer would be inbetween $1.8 billion and $2 billion, according to the Sports Business Journal.
It’s not unproven to believe that Amazon would attempt and poach Barkley in this circumstance. The business supposedly used Al Michaels a 3-year, $45 million agreement to call its Thursday Night Football videogames. You might quickly see Barkley getting a offer of that quality to do a pre-game or post-game program on whatever Amazon’s NBA broadcast would be called.
NBC Sports
This is the NBC peacock logodesign. (NBC)
It’s difficult to visualize Charles Barkley at NBC. Just take a appearance at the brandname’s broadcasts — they’re constantly so buttoned up and fine-tuned.
Charles Barkley tends to be the total opposite. The guy is a talker. One 2nd, he may be putting his heart out for the league’s head coaches after he feels like they got a raw offer. The next, he may be entirely roasting one of his co-hosts for an viewpoint he doesn’t concur with. You neverever understand what you’ll get with Chuck — that’s the charm of having him on a relayed.
Despite the oil and water feel here, you can bet NBC would toss a bag at Barkley to get him on its airwaves talking about the NBA.
ESPN
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Charles Barkley has consistently stated he’d neverever go to ESPN duetothefactthat they’d work him too hard.
But cash talks, folks! He’s apparently currently been in contact with the business (as well as both Amazon and NBC), according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. There appears to haveactually been some interest there.
Marchand proposed an fascinating “sweetheart offer” that would calm both sides:
A sweetie offer for Barkley to do the opening night of the routine season and then