4 post-Inside the NBA jobs Charles Barkley could do for TNT

Charles Barkley is one of the biggest names in sports media. The Chuckster has been a mainstay on TNT's Inside the NBA for well over two decades, and in that time he's helped make the show into one of the most beloved sports programs on TV.

Barkley's time as the star of Inside the NBA may be coming to a close at the end of the 2024-25 NBA season. That's because the league recently signed a slew of massive new rights deals, but despite being one of the NBA's closest partners since it began airing games in 1989, TNT was left out in the cold in favor of ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.

TNT's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has sued the NBA because it believes that it met the necessary requirements to retain its broadcasting rights, but even Barkley himself doesn't see that litigation being successful because of NBA commissioner Adam Silver's legal background. "Adam Silver is brilliant. I don’t think he would put himself in that situation, to be honest with you," Barkley said while being interviewed on Podcast P with Paul George.

Barkley, who is in the third year of a 10-year deal that is thought to be worth over $200 million, said on Tuesday that he intends to stay with TNT through the remainder of his contract. This is a departure from statements he made during the NBA Finals that indicated that he planned to retire after next season, no matter what happened with the league's TV rights negotiations.

Barkley has been adamant that he wouldn't work for another network, so while many fans entertained themselves with the possibility that Inside the NBA could be sold to ESPN, NBC, or Amazon, Barkley's loyalty to the network ruled that out from ever being a possibility.

While the news of Inside the NBA's imminent demise is sad for fans that have loved the show's fun, irreverent take on basketball all these years, it does open the door to some interesting possibilities for Barkley and the rest of the show's talent. If Sir Charles really does plan to stay with TNT for the next seven-plus years even though the network is losing the NBA, what could he do? A recent report suggests that TNT could rebrand Inside the NBA to Inside Sports, but we can be more creative than that. Let's have some fun and dive into the possibilities.

Wrestling commentator

Barkley has been outspoken of his love for professional wrestling in the past. He appeared on The Pat McAfee Show in April to gush about The Rock's return to Wrestlemania, and also said that he'd like to beat up Chad Gable for his heel turn on Sami Zayn during Monday Night Raw. As someone who isn't a wrestling fan, I don't know what those words mean, but what I can tell is that Barkley is invested in the world of wrestling.

Pro wrestling is all about great storylines and high-flying action, so why doesn't TNT put Barkley's talents to use as a commentator for All Elite Wrestling? AEW's Young Bucks already presented Chuck and friends with their own custom AEW championship belts in May, so the tie-in is already there. AEW's ascent to become a legitimate challenger to the WWE has made the wrestling game a two-horse race, and adding a big name like Barkley would only help draw more viewers. Along with sister network TBS, TNT airs a wide variety of AEW programming, all of which Barkley could thrive on. There's Wednesday Night Dynamite, Friday Night Rampage, and Saturday Collision, not to mention the Battle of the Belts, which happens four times a year. Barkley can keep himself busy for most of the week just with AEW, and who knows, maybe he could even get in the ring himself at some point.

On second thought, maybe not.

Bring back all the classics

Much of TNT's programming consists of reruns of old shows. Why not bring them back with a fresh coat of Barkley-shaded paint? Just imagine the possibilities.

Rizzoli & Isles & Chuck, where Barkley finally endears himself to Celtics fans by helping to solve Boston homicides.

Franklin & Bash & Barkley, in which Charles joins a pair of young, streetwise lawyers that don't play by the rules. Bonus points if he gets to throw an uncooperative client through a plate glass window at any point.

Falling Skies, where Barkley leads a group of survivors in a battle to defeat alien invaders. He already has experience in this field from his time in Space Jam.

Men of a Certain Age, where Charles could take the role of the late, great Andre Braugher and join Ray Romano and Scott Bakula for some dad humor and reflections on middle age. Alternatively, just recast the entire show and replace Romano and Bakula with Ernie and Kenny.

Barkley could also help reboot a few shows that once aired on CW / The WB but found syndicated success on TNT. Supernatural aired for 15 seasons. Couldn't we do a couple more with Chuck and Shaq battling werewolves, shapeshifters, and vampires? How about a new version of Charmed, where Charles, Kenny, and Draymond Green are witches that use their powers to defeat demons and warlocks? You're lying if you say you wouldn't watch at least a few episodes out of morbid curiosity.

TNT has dozens of shows that Chuck could appear on. Just don't ask him to read any promos for The Alienist.

Chuck at the Movies

TNT's slogan is "We Know Drama." The network has played countless classic movies on a loop, from The Shawshank Redemption and Con Air to Forrest Gump and The Matrix. Just as TMC has author and film critic Ben Mankiewicz as its host to introduce each film with a bit of history and behind the scenes lore, TNT could have Barkley fill a similar role, albeit in a less serious, more Chuck-ified way.

Better yet, bring back Movies for Guys Who Like Movies. Remember that? Around the turn of the century, TBS aired just about every awesome action movie in existence under this banner, but it's been gone for over 20 years. Let's bring it back with Barkley as the host. He could explain how he would have handled the terrorists in Air Force One, re-enact the "You like them apples" scene from Good Will Hunting, and share what memories he would have implanted into his brain (beating Michael Jordan for an NBA title, perhaps?) if the technology from Total Recall was real.

Barkley is entertaining no matter what he's talking about. Even when he's in studio to cover March Madness, nobody is tuning in to hear his college basketball expertise. They watch him because he's hilarious. Give him a microphone and some good movies to talk about and he'd kill it.

Inside Basketball

We mentioned above that TNT very well may pivot into creating Inside Sports, but who knows yet what that might look like. What I'd like to see is an all-time spite move instead. Stick to basketball, even though the NBA took away the rights to air live games. Could TNT still get the rights to air highlights of games? At this point, we don't know, but imagine a world in which the NBA just completely severs ties with TNT. It's not farfetched, especially with the pending litigation looming over what once was a synergistic relationship.

Keep everything the way it is now. Ernie, Chuck, Kenny, and Shaq in the studio to talk about that night's NBA action, with the small caveat that there's no actual game on TNT for them to cut away to. It sounds crazy, but it could work, especially given the lack of quality of TNT's competitors' pre-game, halftime, and post-game shows. People watch the Inside the NBA crew because they're the best in the business. There's absolutely a scenario where NBA fans watch a game on ESPN, NBC, or Amazon, but they tune in before, during, and after to TNT.

Fans would still show up for all of the hijinks and banter, and there's no reason that NBA players couldn't still be interviewed. Doing this would be like flipping the middle finger to the NBA, and might make the league think twice about screwing over a longtime partner in the future. If TNT manages to draw comparable ratings to the game itself, which sounds outlandish but isn't out of the question, it could even force Adam Silver's hand into carving out an additional live games package to get TNT back in the loop. Viva la Chuck-sistance!