“NBA’s Got a Big Problem” Warns Charles Barkley With Adam Silver Compromise for $76 Billion Cheque

“These people I work with, they screwed this thing up—clearly,” Charles Barkley fired off after the NBA rejected Warner Bros. Discovery’s offer to match Amazon’s $1.8 billion per-year bid for the league’s games starting 2025-26. While his frustration with TNT isn’t over, Chuck’s latest rant shifts toward the league itself. With the NBA’s upcoming broadcast schedule out, Barkley has some strong claims to make about how things are being handled.

Commissioner Adam Silver’s NBA announced its full 2025-26 regular-season schedule, covering everything from opening night to Christmas Day and MLK Day matchups. The season will tip off with the defending champion OKC taking on the new-look Rockets on Oct. 21. But this year isn’t just about the games; it comes with an eagerly anticipated new media rights package. And here’s the catch: fans might need to set their calendars, as different networks will take over on different days. NBC and Peacock will cover Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays; ESPN gets Wednesdays and Fridays; ABC handles Saturdays and Sundays; and Prime Video steps in with NBA action on Thursdays and Fridays.

And this whole setup didn’t sit well with Charles Barkley. The Ringer founder, Bill Simmons, shared his thoughts on Instagram, where he said, “I think the NBA’s got a big problem. How are regular fans gonna like, ‘okay, it’s Tuesday,’ especially when they start putting up games, well sometimes the game going to be on Peacock. And like it’s not going to be on NBC. I think that’s a huge dilemma for the NBA.”

This frustration goes back to last year when the NBA renewed its deal with Disney and signed new agreements with NBCUniversal and Amazon. Starting with the 2025-26 season, ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video will share broadcast rights through 2035-36: a deal worth roughly $76 billion. And Barkley thinks that massive payday is the real culprit here.

Barkley didn’t hold back and even agreed with the host when he said, “guess what? they don’t care. they got so much money, they’re gonna wipe their tears with cash.” Chuck doubled down, adding, “I think it’s a big deal because they just took all the money from all three networks.” And he’s not wrong; the numbers are massive. NBCUniversal signed a $2.45 billion per year deal, Amazon locked in an 11-year, $19.8 billion package, and Disney is shelling out a staggering $2.62 billion per year for its share of games.

Barkley continued,

“I don’t think they give a s— about the fans and I think this is going to come back to bite them, to be honest with you. And then the thing that scares me is this deal is for 11 years. So now people can complain all they want for the next 11 years, they don’t give a s— about the fans. They’re like, if y’all find the games, fine. Just make sure the check clears.”And speaking of checks, Chuck’s isn’t stopping anytime soon. Even though TNT is no longer part of the new media deals, his paycheck will keep rolling in.

Back in 2022,

Charles Barkley locked in a massive 10-year, $210 million deal with TNT, according to Front Office Sports. But with Inside the NBA now shifting to ESPN under the league’s new media rights deal, Chuck isn’t holding back about where he stands. “Turner has to come to me ASAP, and they have to guarantee my whole thing, or they can offer me a pay cut, which there is no chance of that happening, and I’ll be (a) free agent,” he said. And even if he does become a free agent, Barkley isn’t exactly worried; he’d still have “a minimum of a $100 million” sitting on the table.

Barkley calls TNT’s handling of NBA rights ‘the worst’

Charles Barkley isn’t holding back these days, and his frustration with TNT and the NBA is boiling over. With Inside the NBA officially moving to ESPN in 2025 after TNT lost its broadcast rights, Barkley says the transition has been “the worst.” Speaking on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Chuck vented, “TNT just sucks, to be honest with you. They made this deal, and they haven’t told us where we’re gonna work. They haven’t told us how it’s going to work.” The uncertainty over how much airtime the crew will get, especially their famous post-game segments, has Barkley worried that ESPN’s rigid format could strip away what makes the show special.

And Barkley isn’t just upset about losing TNT’s familiar setup; he’s furious about being left in the dark. He revealed that ESPN hasn’t communicated how much freedom he, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith will have on the new platform. “After the game, we have conversations and have fun,” he said. “Are they going to say, ‘You guys got three minutes, five minutes, 15, 30, 45,’ or are we going straight to SportsCenter? They haven’t given us an answer whatsoever.” Fans love Inside the NBA for its unfiltered jokes, chaos, and chemistry, but Barkley fears ESPN’s stricter format could water it down. As he put it best, “They got paid,” but nobody told the crew how this was all supposed to work.

Charles Barkley’s dislike for ESPN isn’t exactly a secret, and it’s one of the reasons retirement might be on his mind sooner than expected. During an appearance on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, Chuck admitted he isn’t thrilled about the idea of juggling work between ESPN and TNT once the big media shift happens. He’s been very clear about one thing: he doesn’t want to take on a heavier workload just because the show is moving platforms. In fact, he even hinted that if ESPN tries to stretch him too thin, he’d rather call it quits than burn himself out.

Barkley still has seven years left on his massive TNT deal, but he confessed he probably only has about two more years in him before he’s ready to walk away. For him, the thought of bouncing between two networks, dealing with longer schedules, and losing creative freedom makes retirement sound more appealing than ever.