Charles Barkley has been flip-flopping on retirement for years, but this time, the 62-year-old insists he meant it, and he’s blaming TNT for messing it up.
Barkley has been talking about retiring from TNT for almost as long as he’s worked there. Last year, Barkley even went so far as to announce his retirement from TNT, an announcement he predictably reneged on soon after.
But Charles Barkley insists his retirement plans were real during an appearance with Mike Missanelli on Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic this week, where he ripped his bosses at TNT for ruining those plans.
“I was gonna retire at 60 and TNT asked me to stay for two more years until they got the contract done,” Barkley claimed. “I said, ‘Okay, that’s fair,’ because TNT has been great to me. I didn’t think those idiots were gonna lose the NBA. My original plan was to retire at 62, which is this year. And I was gonna pass the baton to Vince Carter or Jamal Crawford. I had no idea the idiots I work for were gonna lose the NBA.”
“My concern was just the people I work with,” Barkley continued. “So I said, ‘What are you gonna do?’ They lost the NBA and I was just concerned about the people I work with. They apparently traded our show to ESPN, which is a great company. I work one day a week, Mike. I like working one day a week… I love ESPN, but I’m not gonna work three or four days a week. That’s not gonna happen.”
Inside the NBA is heading to ESPN next season in a licensing agreement with TNT Sports, which is set to lose game rights later this year. The show will continue to be produced and controlled by TNT Sports.
Despite being under contract with TNT Sports, Barkley has remained non-committal to Inside the NBA beyond this season. Maybe he’s just attempting to leverage more money, but Barkley claims he’s annoyed at the prospect of having to work more, even though those demands haven’t been presented to him yet.
If Charles Barkley wants to retire, he still can. Maybe he won’t get to handpick who he passes that baton to, but he can still retire. And if Barkley wants to keep working with the same crew at Inside the NBA, he’ll be able to do that too, thanks to a licensing agreement with ESPN. Whatever route Barkley ultimately settles on, just know he’s going to continue wavering on where, when and if he wants to keep working.
