Charles Barkley blames Turner for stunting his production company’s growth

After watching his production company essentially hibernate in recent years, Charles Barkley accused Turner of being a bad partner.

Earlier this week, Barkley launched a new production venture with an old one, relaunching his Round Mound Media production company in partnership with EverWonder Studio, which is backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI. Zucker previously worked with Barkley at WarnerMedia, where Zucker led both CNN and Turner Sports.

Barkley joined the first episode of The Jim Jackson Show (newly launched on the Rich Eisen Podcast Network) this week. During the interview, he was asked whether this relaunch was expedited by Warner Bros. Discovery losing NBA rights for TNT. According to Barkley, the relaunch was more about years of neglect from previous company Turner (now part of WBD).

“To be honest with you, I’ve been disappointed in Turner for a long time, because this should have been done three years ago where I had more television production stuff out there,” Barkley told Jackson. “You know, they haven’t been a great partner. They’ve been a great TV partner as far as my basketball stuff…but as far as my television production…it should have happened probably five years ago.

“I should have probably 20, 30 projects. Which, I’m not going to be on TV,” Barkley clarified. “My job is to help other people become successful. But Turner has not been a good partner for me because I should have been way ahead of where I am now. And now Jeff came into the picture and hopefully he can take my company to the next level.”

“Turner” will still be a partner in Barkley’s company, in that TNT Sports will have a first-look deal with Round Mound Media. But a relaunch was probably necessary considering Barkley’s media company was founded in 2018 and doesn’t have much content to show for it. According to the relaunch announcement, ten new projects are already in development, including a long-form documentary about Barkley’s life, which will presumably see The Round Mound of Rebound be on TV.

The relaunch announcement teased the production of live events, documentaries, game shows and scripted content. Barkley, however, told Jackson he’s not sure the exact type of content his production company will create, noting there are “so many different avenues” they can go.

“I think the media landscape has done a disservice to Black people to Muslims and to Hispanics,” Barkley said. “Because you know if you see somebody Black on television they’re probably gonna be a crook. Most Hispanics are gangbangers, and you know if you see a Muslim on television, he’s probably gonna be blowing up some s***.”

Barkley explained he wants to use his production company to make sure different races and ethnicities are fairly represented on television.

One avenue, however, that Barkley’s production company doesn’t expect to go is to Inside the NBA. While the future of Inside the NBA is in doubt amid the NBA on TNT coming to an end, Barkley said the relaunch of Round Mound Media was not influenced by that uncertainty.

[The Jim Jackson Show]