Charles Barkley Rightfully Ripped Adam Silver And The NBA For How They Handled The TNT/Amazon TV Rights Negotiations
David Dow. Getty Images.Once Adam Silver and the NBA made the decision to reject Warner Bros/TNT's attempt to match Amazon's $1.8B TV rights offer it was only a matter of time before someone like Chuck decided to weigh in. Certainly not one to hold his tongue, Chuck had been pretty vocal during this whole fiasco even going as far to suggest that maybe his own media company would just buy the rights to Inside The NBA to keep it alive (time to revisit this IMO).
So it's no surprise that he did not hold back when it came to addressing Adam Silver and the league's most recent decision
I feel like if anyone is aware of the inside dealings with this negotiation, it's probably Chuck. So for him to suggest that Adam Silver and the NBA were trying to get out of the TNT business no matter what is interesting, especially when you pair that idea with what the league eventually said when they rejected TNT's offer. Some bullshit about technically matching all the terms or something along those lines. That always felt a little fishy to me, because how hard is it to just say OK, we'll match everything Amazon is willing to do?
You give that type of reasoning when you never wanted to be back with TNT in the first place in my opinion. It's probably why this is most likely going to court to figure out, because to me that seems like negotiating in bad faith which I have to imagine isn't kosher.
He's also right when he said Silver and the league are choosing money over fans. On one hand, that's Adam Silver's job. He doesn't work for us, he works for the owners. It's in their best interest to get the most money possible for their product, and that's what Silver did. Welcome to capitalism folks. On the other hand, fuck that. I'm not seeing any of that money, so the only thing I care about is how this is impacting my life and my viewing experience, and safe to say that's a disaster.
No Inside The NBA, it's looking like no Kevin Harlan on the mic unless he somehow goes to Amazon, who could objectively say that's making the product better? Chuck knows that, and that's why he's a man of the people. He cares about the fans and the people who actually care about the product and not just the dollar signs.
Which is why this latest rumor is pretty damn intriguing
Given how god awful ESPN's NBA coverage is between their studio shows/halftime shows, this would obviously be a massive upgrade. The only issue here is Ernie Johnson has already said he'll never leave TNT (sigh), and Chuck is on record talking about how he'll never go to ESPN where they'll force him to be on like 15 different shows. Even if they convince him, if you can't have Ernie there's no point in doing something like this. Whatever happens needs to involve everyone, and unless Ernie has a change of heart and finally decides he's OK with leaving TNT, it just won't be quite the same.
