ESPN just let their cash cow Skip walk to FS1 without a second thought. The sports drive these shows, not the personalities
And ESPN is the other network that shows NBA games, you don't think they'd drop millions for charles? easily. they even talk about him on espn.
They care... But they're also stooping to his level with the personal attacks. Brown's tweet was funny, but just as inappropriate... NBA GM's and front office exec's shouldn't really be tweeting media members anyways. Part of what makes it unique is its ability for the commentators to speak their minds... WITHOUT pandering or catering to the league. ESPN is clearly in bed with every league it shows... All their coverage is vanilla as hell. When somebody like Simmons goes off (justly) on the commissioner, they silence and fire him. I really don't want to watch a watered down/censored version of inside the NBA. It certainly got out of hand with the tweets and Chucks response to that, and the money talk, etc. As far as dogpiling on the Rockets dog**** play... You're still going to likely see plenty of that. Regardless of who they get to coach them next year, they'll be predicted to be a border-line playoff team by all these same commentators.
He is THE star. Inside the NBA was completely unwatchable for a few weeks when he was covering March Madness for CBS.
Considering the amount of downsizing ESPN has done lately, no I do not think they would get into a bidding war for him.
Well, I disagree. If all it took was a threat to get Barkley to stop, he would have caved a long time ago. imso, Barkley is a man who just wanted an apology. And that would be all it would take. But as I said, if he got TNT in trouble, he'd feel bad enough about that that he'd stop with a public apology to take all the blame. So maybe that last $3m comment in tinman's video caused a huge mess for TNT behind the scenes.
thx for that vid. Yeah, that sound-bite could be bad by itself, but it wasn't like Barkley started that tangent in that moment. It was an off-the-cuff response to Shaq saying something about money, then he continues his perfectly OK comments about the play of the Rockets. Shaq said this right before, "You know why he tweeted you? You said that was fake hustle. So they tweeted back saying 'You know all about fake hustle in your last two years in Houston when you took all our money." That's kinda just banter between Tad and Barkley that reads like a legal battle. I guess lawyers could pounce on that. I sure hope that's not the case. Because I doubt that will last. I hope it's settled with just gentleman's apologies finally. Getting lawyers involved to force a public apology won't fix anything in the long run. We'll see.
Barkley had all the leverage here. No one would watch TNT half times how or inside the NBA if it wasn't for him. He's pretty much untouchable. Barkley - can't be touched EJ - only white dude and provides balance. Can be replaced but not likely Smith - only employed because Barkley and him have good chemistry but easily expendable Shaq - get his fat ass off the show already
Barkley had all the leverage here. No one would watch TNT half times how or inside the NBA if it wasn't for him. He's pretty much untouchable. Barkley - can't be touched EJ - only white dude and provides balance. Can be replaced but not likely Smith - only employed because Barkley and him have good chemistry but easily expendable Shaq - get his fat ass off the show already
Untouchable? I'm betting whoever has more money is going to win in a lawsuit and that's going to be Les. I think that's what happened. Especially during a huge FA period the last thing you want is this guy continuing to trash the organization. Saying the team sucks is one thing, saying the team doesn't pay their players is another thing entirely. I guess we'll never know but it was odd for him to do this. Hopefully the Rockets brass will back off too, unless he crosses that line once again.
As far as I'm concerned, apology not accepted. And that goes for TNT as well. They've let that ass run his mouth about our organization for years and never gave a damn before. Now this insincere apology? Means nothing to me. Show the org and its fans by your actions and maybe in 5 years I'll believe. Right now, its pretty obvious someone spoke to him and he's backpedaling cause he likes his cushy job with the great money. Not impressed.
