Charles Barkley slams TNT’s lack of communication on NBA rights: ‘Our bosses did a sh*tty job’

As TNT found its future with the NBA in doubt last year, Charles Barkley realized he was out of touch.

Having spent most of his adult life surrounded by fellow millionaires, the Hall of Fame power forward never knew what it was like to have co-workers who were concerned about whether or not they would be able to afford their mortgages. But as it became increasingly apparent that TNT would be on the outside looking on the NBA’s next media rights deal, that’s exactly the position Barkley found himself in.

“I was sitting there like, ‘man, you are kinda outta touch with reality,'” Barkley recalled during an interview on Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take. “And these people, I really genuinely like and love because I’ve been with ’em for 25 years. But to hear them talk about, ‘man, we’re gonna lose our job in six months.’ And then as it gets closer, you can see the concern.”

It also didn’t help that the powers that be at TNT , in Barkley’s words, “did a sh*tty job” keeping their employees informed about the status of its negotiations and what losing the NBA would mean for their careers.

“They did an awful job of keeping us abreast,” Barkley said. “We were playing golf during the playoffs and we were reading the internet, finding out if we are gonna get fired or not. And I was like, TNT our bosses, they sucked, plain and simple. They’re like, ‘yo man, just tell us. Shoot us straight.’ These are real people. We’re literally were playing golf during the playoffs looking at the internet. Then one story said we lost it. The next story said we still in negotiation. Then we lost it. We’re still in negotiations. And TNT never came to us, like grown folks and said, ‘hey guys, we’re probably going to lose the NBA,’ which we could have understood.

“But I thought they sucked. I told ’em they sucked. Because there’s a way you treat people. Because if they had have came to us and said, ‘hey, you know what, it’s a lot of money.’ Because we were paying $1.2 billion a year and it went to $2.5 billion. That’s a lot of money for 11 years. If they had said ‘it’s not a good deal,’ we would’ve understood. But to let us hear about it…”

Ultimately TNT did lose its NBA rights, although that didn’t mean the end of its coverage of the league. Still possessing the rights to Inside the NBA with most of its key talent under contract, TNT Sports reached a licensing agreement to the lease the popular studio show to ESPN in a deal that will go into effect next season.

But even though Inside the NBA will live on, its biggest star remained unsatisfied with TNT’s communication — or lack thereof. In fact, Barkley said he first learned about his show’s impending move to ESPN airwaves from his new colleagues at the Worldwide Leader.

“I’ll tell you something really sh*tty about it too: I found out that we got traded to ESPN from ESPN,” the 1993 NBA MVP recalled. “I’m sitting at home on a Friday night. I get a text from Scott Van Pelt, Brian Windhorst, Elle Duncan and Bob Myers welcoming me to the family. I’m like, ‘what family? What are you talking about?’

“And then about an hour and a half later, I get a call from TNT like, ‘well the story broke.’ I said, ‘well you probably could have gave us a heads up.’ I said, ‘you traded us to ESPN and we have to hear about it on the internet.’ I said, ‘that’s just not the way you do business.'”

Barkley’s frustration is understandable, even if TNT’s lack of the communication is hardly surprising for a variety of reasons. In end, what matters most is that Inside the NBA will continue — and thus, many of Barkley’s co-workers will keep their jobs — although that hasn’t stopped the 62-year-old from expressing concern about what the product might look like on its new home.