ESPN Exec Makes Honest Admission About Charles Barkley 'Interest'

According to Charles Barkley himself, he lost a minimum of $100 million in potential salaries by choosing to re-sign with TNT. This is after the NBA Hall of Famer decided to turn down lucrative offers from other networks to sign a contract extension with Turner.

This is despite the fact that TNT likely won't have broadcast rights for the NBA after this coming season. The NBA announced in July that they had agreed to an 11-year deal with Amazon for a whopping $77 billion. Now that TNT is set to lose its broadcast rights, it also means that Barkley's highly popular show with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith, "Inside the NBA" is likely heading into its final season on air.

Interestingly enough, Amazon is just one of three networks the NBA will be partnered with starting the 2025-26 season. NBCUniversal will also be a partner, and so will ESPN.

On Tuesday, high-ranking ESPN executive Burke Magnus revealed that the network is interested in hiring Barkley should he become available.

“Yeah, that would be a perfect world, actually," Magnus told Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports during the Tuned In summit in Manhattan. "Charles is a singular talent.

"... I would be lying if we said we weren’t interested in Charles. I think the entire industry is interested in Charles. He’s really that special. So, we’ll see.”

Magnus, who is currently ESPN's content chief, did not go into detail about his revelation, but what is clear is that the network is indeed interested in Charles Barkley. This only means that ESPN is likely to have a run at the former NBA MVP if and when he becomes available on the market.

As Magnus stated, however, it's not only ESPN that has shown interest in Barkley, who has firmly established himself as one of the most entertaining and, obviously, sought-after broadcasters in the industry.

At this point, it would probably be safe to assume that Barkley will remain on the air even after TNT's NBA deal comes to an end.

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