Frustrated With ESPN’s Secrecy, Charles Barkley Invokes His $210 Million Deal to Establish He Can’t Be Fired

It was once feared that Inside the NBA would end at the conclusion of this season. But ESPN has deemed the fan-favorite show too valuable to retire. One might think that the sports programming juggernaut swooped in at the right time to save the show when TNT lost the rights to it. Charles Barkley doesn’t though. The Hall of Famer griped about joining ESPN during his recent appearance on the OutKick podcast.

The show has undergone many changes since its inception in the 1989-90 season, namely with its hosts. And after the 2011-12 season, Inside became a consistent source of basketball entertainment starring Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith.

With TNT exiting, this change in leadership has frustrated Barkley. The 1993 MVP explained to Dan Dakich that not only does he not know who he’ll be working with at ESPN and how much work would he be asked to do, but he doesn’t even know how much he’ll be working. The massive number of unanswered questions has Chuck questioning his future in the industry.

“I just want to make sure the people I work with got a job. Like I said … I didn’t know the people I worked for here at Turner were so stupid. They were going to lose the NBA,” Chuck said, sharing that he had planned to pass the torch to Vince Carter or Jamal Crawford in the coming years before everything went down.

Even with his discontent, Barkley has no worries about his job security. “But I’m not going to change my personality … They can’t fire me. I made too much money to get fired … First of all, they’d have to pay me for seven years, and I’m going to quit way before then. But they wanna fire me, I would love for them to do that,” Chuck added as he flexed his $210 million fortune without mentioning that astronomical number.

At 62-years-old and with over 20 years in the sports media business, Barkley never planned to spend too much more time working. But his new partnership with ESPN could fast-track his retirement, especially considering what he’s said about the brand in the past. “Not gonna work me like a dog and not pay me,” he said to ESPN in a 2017 segment of Inside.

Chuck has always had a certain level of disdain for ESPN, but he could now be forced to make amends with the company’s recent acquisition of his show. He would also have to stop burning bridges with the likes of Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins. In fact, Barkley publicly called Perkins a ‘fool’ while slamming ESPN’s analysis of the Lakers being one of the favorites to win this season.

Smith obviously took note of that and came out with a tweet two months ago, warning Barkley that if he doesn’t change his attitude, he could expect his colleagues-to-be to call him a fool in return.

In a separate video, Smith believes that what Barkley says has a lot to do with keeping up with TV ratings, being a veteran at churning out controversies with statements that grab a lot of attention. However, Smith still considers Barkley a friend who is one of the sweetest human beings he has met, so their working dynamic could be a fascinating one.

But will that friendship last if Barkley does not go along with ESPN narratives like Smith does? Time will tell. The Sixers legend has already revealed that he still plans on retiring within 2-3 years, rather than finish out his contract until 2032.  So the onus seems to be completely on Chuck now to adjust and move on quickly from his time at Turner.