“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 NBA on TNT 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 still rubbed people the wrong way.

Charles Barkey is clearly still salty about it. He spoke about it during a recent interview with SI Media.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, Shaq, Kenny, or Ernie 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.

Barkley’s anger is justified, considering how poorly TNT, or more importantly, Warner Bros., has been run. WBD CEO David Zaslav has been crucified by fans for his poor handling of several negotiations from feature films to the NBA media rights deal.

If there is one person that Chuck should be aiming his anger at, Zaslav is front and center.Barkley refuses to work “like a dog” for ESPNRegardless 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 lap dog.“I love ESPN. I think they’re probably the best thing that ever happened in sports,” he began.

“But I ain’t going to be working like no damn dog. That’s been my only concern.” Chuck feels confident that ESPN will accommodate due to the 62-year-old getting up there in age.

Charles is not going to let this one go anytime soon. He showed nothing but loyalty to TNT so for the show to nearly die due to their ineptitude probably stings. It might have fallen off a clip in terms of analysis and leaned further toward entertainment, but NBA on TNT is a staple for modern day basketball.

Happy to see it will continue.The post “Kenny And Shaquille O’Neal Didn’t Even Have A Contract”: Charles Barkley Livid At TNT’s Stupidity During ESPN Dealings appeared first on The SportsRush..