Fans adore Charles Barkley on sports television. The NBA legend’s hilarious personality, along with his razor-sharp tongue, has brought endless laughter to sports fans across the world. However, he is in no mood to do it for much longer. As he revealed, he doesn’t even intend to see out his current contract.
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Barkley recently appeared on 97.5 The Fanatic show, where he fielded questions about his future with TNT. At this time, he admitted that there was no way he was seeing out the remaining seven years left on his contract. Instead, he is looking to keep working for a far shorter amount of time. He said,
“I am not [staying for the rest of the contract]! I’m gonna do next year, and the year after… I’m sitting in this meeting, they’re like, ‘We don’t know what we’re going to do. But, we wanna keep doing the show'”
It is rather shocking to know that Barkley isn’t looking to continue for very much longer at all. However, to be fair to him, he has already outrun his initial goal for himself. After all, he often used to say that he wished to retire by 60. Yet, he is still looking to do two more years.
This doesn’t appear to be a money issue either for the Suns legend. After all, as admitted not too long ago, TNT has hardly been the highest bidder for his services.
Barkley claims other networks offered him more money
Over his tenure with TNT, Barkley has proven himself to be a powerhouse on sports television. So, it is no surprise that all kinds of networks would be willing to fork out large sums of money for him. Even if that means offering him over $210 million, something he is currently earning with TNT.
However, at this stage of his life, it’s not about the money, Barkley has revealed. Speaking about it on 97.5 The Fanatic, he said,
“Why does everybody only think about money when they thinking about things like that?… I already got peace of mind. Let me tell you something, I’ve been here since 1984. If I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest damn fool in the history of civilization!… I do like money, but that’s when I was working. We’re talking about going forward, and I’ll be 62 years old. Ain’t nobody 62 young!”
So, it does seem that there is no convincing Sir Charles to keep working past the next two years. While this will bring sorrow to many fans, it is not hard to understand where the NBA legend is coming from.
‘The Chuckster’ has had a bright and fruitful career. He deserves his retirement.
