Charles Barkley: TNT execs ‘know better’ than to bother me over frequent attacks

Charles Barkley has no concerns about getting an earful from his bosses for publicly airing grievances as he stews over TNT’s handling of its NBA rights negotiations.

With TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly on the brink of losing its NBA rights, the 61-year-old Hall of Famer has gone on the offensive in multiple interviews, sticking up for “Inside the NBA’s” behind-the-scenes crew and expressing dissatisfaction over WBD CEO David Zaslav saying in 2022 that TNT didn’t need the NBA.

And Barkley, never one to shy away from voicing his opinion, isn’t going to stop now.

“Number one, they’re not gonna call me,” Barkley said of his bosses on the “SI Media with Jimmy Traina” podcast. “They know better.”

Barkley proceeded to again criticize Zaslav — he says the two don’t have a relationship and only met for the second time at WBD’s recent upfronts — and believes NBA commissioner Adam Silver did not take kindly to the exec’s comment.

“Secondly, he never should’ve said that. Plain and simple,” Barkley continued, per SI.com. “I think this is our third negotiations and we’ve always signed during the exclusive window. It’s never come up for bidding. Clearly Adam is upset. I’m assuming he’s upset. Something is going on, to be honest with you, because if we have the right to match, it would be a simple — ‘yeah, we’re gonna match’ or ‘we’re not gonna match.’ That’s the thing that’s got us disturbed the most.”