TNT commentator Charles Barkley announced Friday he plans to retire from television broadcasting after the NBA's 2024-25 season. With Warner Bros. Discovery engaged on ongoing media rights negotiations with the NBA, TNT commentator Charles Barkley announced Friday that he plans to retire from television broadcasting in 2025.
The NBA has held negotiations with Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Amazon and NBC on its next media rights deal, which will begin after the 2024-25 season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month that talks remain ongoing, but multiple reports have indicated that Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT, could lose its NBA rights for the first time since 1988.“There has been a lot of noise around our network the last few months,” Barkley said.
Silver said on June 6 that the media rights negotiations are “incredibly complex” and that league staffers had been “literally working around the clock” to finalize new agreements.