Charles Barkley has weighed in on Warner Bros. Discovery’s loss of the NBA after the league rejected the media conglomerate’s matching proposal and chose to move forward with deals with Amazon, NBC and Disney.
The deals, reportedly worth a collective $76 billion, will take effect starting in the 2025-26 season and run through 2036. Some 75 regular-season games will be on broadcast TV each season, up from the minimum of 15 games under the current agreement.
“Clearly the NBA wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance. TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off,” the “Inside the NBA” analyst said in a statement on Friday. “It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”
On Monday, WBD submitted paperwork with the NBA to exercise its matching rights, with an individual familiar with the matter telling TheWrap it targeted the tech giant’s $1.8 billion per year package.
But the league said WBD’s proposal did not match the terms of Amazon’s offer, prompting it to enter into an agreement with the tech giant. It added that its primary objective during media rights negotiations was to “maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans.”
The new arrangement with Amazon “supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements,” the league continued. “All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”
In a letter sent to Warner, the NBA cited a provision that states an existing media partner can exercise its matching rights “only via the specific form of combined audio and video distribution.” (If it’s Internet distribution, a matching incumbent may not exercise such games rights via television distribution.)
WBD didn’t see it that way. In a statement, TNT Sports said that the NBA “grossly misinterpreted” its contractual matching rights and said it would take “appropriate action.”
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” the statement read. “In doing so, they are rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage, delivered through the full combined reach of WBD’s video-first distribution platforms — including TNT, home to our four-decade partnership with the league, and Max, our leading streaming service.”
Under terms that run through the 2024-25 season, ESPN pays the NBA about $1.4 billion annually while WBD pays about $1.2 billion per year.
Barkley joined TNT’s “Inside the NBA” in 2000, co-hosting alongside Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal. The show has won a total of 19 Sports Emmys, including three in 2024 for Outstanding Studio Show − Limited Run, Outstanding Studio Analyst for Barkley, and Outstanding Studio Host for Johnson.
In June, Barkley said that the 2024-25 season would be his last and that he didn’t plan to join any other network in the event that WBD lost the NBA.
“I just want to thank everyone who has been at Turner for the last 24 years,” Barkley’s Friday statement concluded. “They are the best people and the most talented, and they deserve better. I also want to thank the NBA and its fans − the best fans in sports. We’re going to give you everything we have next season.”
