Charles Barkley‘s stint as an analyst could potentially end in a year’s time, but he doesn’t intend to go down without a fight. During a recent episode of Inside the NBA, the NBA legend spoke on the subject of Caitlin Clark being hated by the rest of the WNBA. Amidst this, when he was told that he would only be hated by the players of the league now, Barkley hilariously admitted there was only one thing he cared about.

“They [WNBA players] can’t do anything to me! They can hate on me, but the mailman better be at my damn house for the 1st and the 15th for another year!”

As many may be aware by now, Charles Barkley is referencing the massive shift in the NBA media’s landscape coming up at the moment. With TNT having all but lost in the bidding war for broadcasting rights to the NBA, this will likely be the last campaign that fans get to enjoy Inside the NBA.

While Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley could conceivably move studios, Ernie Johnson had admitted that he intends to continue his loyalty to Turner Sports, the parent company of TNT. Due to this, the others have come out and said that they will be unwilling to continue the program without him.

In the end, the writing seems to be on the wall for this fan-favorite show. As the NBA community grieves the impending loss of this TNT program, Charles Barkley couldn’t help but join in recently, although for a different reason.

Charles Barkley claims TNT losing NBA ‘sucks’

Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Charles Barkley isn’t too worried about his future. However, he is disappointed at the thought of what would happen to his co-workers at TNT when the network loses the rights to the NBA. During an interview with SiriusXM, he said,

“It sucks right now. Uh, for the people I work with, man, it just sucks right now. Uh, there’s nothing I can say, you know, because I’m worried about all the people I work with. You know, man, I just turned 61. I got enough money and we, I don’t even look at it as getting fired… Probably 200 people are gonna lose their job at Turner [Sports] if we lose the NBA.” 

The end of this great show likely doesn’t affect anyone more than those who worked behind the camera to make everything happen. With the loss of so many jobs, it is these people who will have to worry about what they will be getting from the job market after this show’s final episode. And of course, this doesn’t even begin to cover the emotional aspect of this dilemma.

To these under-appreciated crewpersons, The NBA community will need to say an unbridled thank you for making the show as stupendous as it was.

Who knows? Along with them finally getting the appreciation they have deserved for so long, it may make them demanded personnel for other networks as well.

Happy endings don’t come much better than that.