DALLAS — After the Dallas Mavericks demolished the Boston Celtics in Game 4, the third-largest blowout in NBA Finals history, some more big news dropped.
Charles Barkley announced on NBA TV's post-game coverage that he would be retiring from television after the 2025 season. Barkley has been a studio analyst for TNT since 2000 on the Emmy-award winning show Inside the NBA alongside Ernie Johnson Jr., Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny "The Jet" Smith.
Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" and the show has accumulated 19.
“There’s been a lot of noise around our network the last few months and I just want to say I’ve talked to all the other networks, but I ain’t going nowhere other than TNT,” Barkley said while working on NBA TV's NBA Finals postgame show.
The NBA's current deals with ABC-ESPN and Turner Sports expire after next season and the league has been talking with NBC, ESPN and Amazon, among other networks and platforms, about what comes next. Commissioner Adam Silver said last week he hopes new long-term deals will be completed shortly.
Barkley and broadcast teammates Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith have discussed their uncertain future on their popular “Inside the NBA” studio show. Barkley would seemingly draw interest from any network televising NBA, but the 61-year-old has decided that 25 years will be enough and he will “pass the baton,” hopefully, to a TNT teammate such as Vince Carter or Jamal Crawford.
"No matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television. Next year, I'm going to just retire after 25 years," Barkley said on NBA TV.
Barkley played a Hall of Fame career in the NBA before joining TNT in 2000, playing 16 season in the league (eight for Philadelphia, four in Phoenix and four in Houston). Barkley is widely regarded as one of the best power forwards in NBA history. He was named an All-Star 11 times, All-NBA First Team five times and NBA MVP in 1993.
The future for the rest of the Inside the NBA crew remains unclear.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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