“Kenny And Shaquille O’Neal Didn’t Even Have A Contract”: Charles Barkley Livid At TNT’s Stupidity During ESPN Dealings

The basketball universe will be out of balance for the 2025-2026 NBA season. That’s because the famed Inside The NBA program will be moving to ESPN following Warner Bros. losing out on the media rights negotiations deal to NBC. Sure, the popular show will continue, but the way it went down has rubbed people the wrong way. Charles Barkley, for one, is clearly still salty about it.

The legendary power forward did not mince any words when he spoke about it during an interview with Sports Illustrated. When the topic came up, Chuck expressed his frustration with the unprofessionalism of TNT.

“I learned from people at ESPN that we had been traded to ESPN,” the NBA legend revealed. “TNT did not even have the common courtesy that we were going to work for ESPN. How unprofessional is that?” asked the Hall of Famer.

Furthermore, Barkley claimed that neither he, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, or Ernie Johnson were told by TNT that they had “lost the NBA” in the rights deal. “We’re playing golf and checking articles on the internet,” Chuck revealed.

“Three articles says it’s gone. That’s not the way you run a business,” he added. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Chuck then revealed a key piece of information about how inept TNT was in the negotiations.

“Kenny and Shaq didn’t even have a contract. Not only did you not tell us, you signed the deal with ESPN and Kenny and Shaq are not even in the contract. How unprofessional is that?” asked Chuck again. Shaq did eventually sign a deal keeping him with the program long-term, but it wasn’t immediate.

According to a Front Office Sports report in February 2025, Shaq would be earning $15 million per year from his renewed deal with TNT, as the broadcasters will be licensing the show for ESPN. However, if this figure is true, then Shaq’s deal is of lesser value than Kenny’s as well as Barkley’s.

Kenny is said to be earning an impressive $16 million per year from the TNT deal, while Barkley has been taking home an estimated $21 million per year since 2022. But it is not just about the money, it is about their loyalty towards the show and TNT, and the team they have built to come out with arguably the best basketball content in the country.

So Barkley’s anger is justified, considering how much flak TNT, or more importantly, Warner Bros., has been getting for the way things are being run there. WBD CEO David Zaslav, in particular, has been crucified by fans for his poor handling of several negotiations, from feature films to the NBA media rights deal.

Barkley refuses to work “like a dog” for ESPN

Regardless of how poorly things went down, Barkley is now an employee of ESPN. However, he doesn’t plan on getting taken advantage of by “the worldwide leader in sports.” He tells SI in the same interview that he won’t be ESPN’s work slave.

“I love ESPN. I think they’re probably the best thing that ever happened in sports,” he said. “But I ain’t going to be working like no damn dog. That’s been my only concern.” The 62-year-old feels confident that ESPN will accommodate his wishes due to his getting up there in age.

Barkley is not going to let this one go anytime soon. He had shown nothing but loyalty to TNT, so for the show to nearly die due to their ineptitude probably stings. The show might have fallen off a shade in terms of analysis and leaned further toward entertainment over the years, but nevertheless, Inside The NBA is a staple for modern-day basketball. Fans are only too happy to see it continue, albeit in a new avatar.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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