Charles Barkley agrees with disenchanted NBA fans.
The Basketball Hall of Famer appeared on long-running ESPN show “Pardon the Interruption” on Friday to discuss current matters in the NBA, particularly ranting about how hard it is to simply find games.
The league’s new media rights deal sprinkles games throughout ESPN/ABC, NBC/Peacock and Amazon’s Prime Video.
Barkley isn’t a fan of the whole setup.
“It is so difficult for fans to find the games now,” Barkley told Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser. “I think we’ve done a disservice to the fans and to the game. We’ve got to find a way to let the fans know. Because the fans are the backbone, and we want to support these networks.”
Barkley went on to say that people “don’t know” when games are on, and where.
“We’ve got to be very careful because we’ve got an 11-year deal, and it’s a team deal. The players are gonna be successful, but we want the networks to be successful also,” Barkley continued.
The new media rights deal, signed in July 2024, was inked for 11 years and $77 billion, and it kicked in this year.
Controversially, the deal didn’t include TNT, which didn’t appear to be keen on keeping the NBA product.
“Inside The NBA,” a long-running staple of TNT’s coverage, has since been moved to ESPN and will air more often now that football season is over.
Previously, TNT and ESPN shared the bulk of the nationally televised contests, not including the in-house NBA TV.
Barkley, who continues to co-host alongside Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, has been a vocal proponent of the league becoming more “fan-friendly” as it relates to this media deal.
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