Just like the fire-breathing Pat McAfee earlier than him, Charles Barkley isn’t going to tone down his rhetoric or make claims that he doesn’t consider for the good thing about ESPN.
Barkley already is daring ESPN to fireside him earlier than his first look on the community that can take over “Inside the NBA” subsequent season.
“I’m not going to change my personality,” Barkley mentioned throughout an episode of Outkick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich,” in keeping with Terrible Saying.
“Ain’t nobody — they can’t fire me. I make too much money to get fired. So, they can’t fire me. First of all, if they fire me, they got to pay me for seven years, and I’m going to quit way before then. But if they want to fire me, I would love for them to do that. The only decision we’ve been making is how long I’m going to work… I’m not worried about getting fired. And nobody at ESPN is going to tell me what to say or do. Period.”
ESPN will start licensing “Inside The NBA” subsequent season after TNT Sports activities misplaced its NBA broadcast rights. Barkley reportedly signed a 10-year, $210 million contract in 2022 to be an analyst on the most effective basketball pregame and postgame present.
However Barkley doesn’t sound like he’s thinking about doing appearances on “Get Up,” “First Take,” “SportsCenter” or every other ESPN programming as soon as he joins.
Particularly not if he’s sharing the airwaves with ESPN’s NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins.
“I’m going to do what I want to do,” Barkley mentioned. “No one’s going to inform me what to say, or what to do. I get upset. [ESPN] is like, ‘The Lakers are contenders.’ I’m like, ‘No, they’re not.’ They know they’re not contenders.
“Kendrick Perkins, who don’t know his ass from a hole in the wall, he’s like, ‘The Lakers are contenders. The Lakers are contenders.’ And I said, ‘They’re not contenders.’ And, clearly, if you lose in the first round [of the playoffs], you aren’t a contender.”
Barkley mentioned he was going to retire after this season however is sticking round “to make sure the people I love and work with for the last 25 years (at TNT) got a job” after the community change.
“That’s one that’s been very interesting and frustrating for me; we actually have no idea how this is going to work,” Barkley mentioned. The notion that I’m going to work extra as I become old, that’s simply not going to occur.”
