Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) says it has renewed its talent agreement with retired professional basketball player Charles Barkley that will keep him at TNT Sports for several more years.
The announcement comes about a month after Barkley said he would retire from television, regardless of how things shook out with the National Basketball Association (NBA), which was in the middle of negotiating a new telecast agreement with WBD and other media stakeholders.
Last month, the NBA said it was moving games from TNT Sports to Amazon’s Prime Video and Comcast’s NBC Sports, which WBD is contesting in court. Barkley previously criticized the NBA for forging a deal with Amazon and Comcast over WBD. TNT Sports will air NBA games this upcoming season as part of its broadcast obligations under the prior contract.
The media rights deal raised questions about what would happen to “Inside the NBA,” the TNT Sports program that Barkley contributes to. At least for now, nothing changes, Barkley said on Tuesday.
“I love my TNT Sports family. My number one priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible,” Barkley said in a statement. “We have the most amazing people, and they are the best at what they do. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them both on the shows we currently have and new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me.”
Barkley affirmed he was “impressed iby the leadership team who is fighting hard and have been aggressive in adding new properties to TNT Sports, which I am very excited about.”
Over the past few years, WBD has sought to build up the TNT Sports brand — which is shared across TNT, TBS and Tru TV — with additional live sports and shoulder programming, including games from the National Women’s Soccer Team, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League, as well as collegiate athletic events.
On Tuesday, WBD said it was expanding its roster of live sports by adding five games from the Savannah Bananas comedy baseball team, starting later this month. All five games will air on Tru TV, with the first scheduled for Friday, August 16.
