One of the biggest NBA free agent bidding wars could be on the horizon — and it doesn’t even involve any star currently playing on the hardwood.
NBA legend Charles Barkley could become a sports media free agent should Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) not keep its right to the NBA after next season.
While there’s still no official contract signed by the NBA for its next media deal, reports from several outlets have said that the NBA has frameworks for deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.
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There could be a bidding war between those three companies for Barkley’s services as he’s said publicly that he will opt out of the 10-year contract extension that he signed with WBD in 2022 should it not keep the NBA.
Where Barkley will go next is a mystery. When asked about by Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina if Barkley had a preference on where to go, he responded by saying that it will still have to depend on what the final package each network secures with the NBA will look like. And that still unclear.
“I don’t know who’s going to have what, so I couldn’t make an educated guess,” Barkley told Traina on the podcast “SI Media with Jimmy Traina” on Thursday, May 30.
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Barkley said that aside from the rights packages, the logistics of shoots will also be important in making his final decision.
“I would have to sit down with those people and go, ‘What are you going to have?'” Barkley said. “Two important questions — what do you have and where are you going to do the show from?”
Barkley lives in his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, but flies out to TNT Studios in Atlanta, Georgia for “Inside The NBA.” He made sure to note that scheduling would be a priority, adding that should ESPN offer him a big payday, it wouldn’t matter as much if he was going to work constantly.
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“Let me tell you something — they’re not going to work me like a dog,” Barkley said. “ESPN Radio, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes — I mean like, hell no. As much as I love ESPN, I just turned 61. The notion that I’m going to be working like a dog into my mid-60s, that’s definitely not going to happen.”
Barkley’s sentiments about ESPN’s work schedule are fair considering some of the network’s highest-paid stars such as Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee are on-air daily and sometimes more than once in a day. But over the last few years, ESPN has created deals with stars such as Shannon Sharpe that allows them to go on-air only a few days a week.
Barkley may not know his next steps just yet, but considering the nightly jokes he’s pulling on TNT airwaves, the shots he’s taking at WBD execs, and the multitude of appearances on shows like Traina’s, he seems to already be a step ahead in preparing for his free agency.
“We’re gonna miss you. We’re done after tonight.” – Charles Barkley
“You ain’t done yet. We gotta figure out something.” – Luka Dončić
“We got all next year too. And then who knows after that.” – Ernie Johnson 🏀🎙️📺😂 pic.twitter.com/neHy0NpqI8
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 31, 2024
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