Charles Barkley told SI Media With Jimmy Traina on May 21 that he did not like Shams Charania breaking the news that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won a second straight MVP on May 17 before Amazon Prime was scheduled to announce it that evening.
"You know, I like (Charania) a lot, but I didn't like that leaking," Barkley said, and added bluntly: "I think the NBA should be embarrassed that got out."
The criticism cut to money and access. Barkley pointed to the new broadcast landscape that gave networks multibillion-dollar rights and then failed to protect exclusives or keep fans oriented. "That network paid $2.5 billion for the next 11 years; 2.5 was the reason we lost the NBA because we couldn’t come up with $2.5 billion for 11 years," he said, and later: "You know, you can't charge these networks that much money and then don’t give them some exclusives on some things. I mean, I just think that's unfair."
The sum Barkley referenced sits inside a much larger picture: the NBA signed an 11-year, $76 billion media deal that runs through the 2035-36 season with partners including Walt Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime. The league rebuffed Warner Bros. Discovery's reported $1.8 billion-per-year offer, according to an report on July 11, 2024. Barkley's complaint landed on a league and marketplace that already look very different than they did three years ago.
On the programming side, Barkley singled out the uneven start of Inside the NBA after the show’s move to and ABC. He said the Inside the NBA crew only worked one time in December and one time in January during the show's first year on — an infrequency he framed as emblematic of a wider problem. "It's been perfect," he said of some collaborators, then added, "They have been amazing to work with," before returning to the criticism about access and timing.
That fragmentation, Barkley argued, leaves fans behind. "NBC, Peacock, Amazon, I think we have disrespected the fans," he said. "They don’t know when the games are on." He described using his app to track action when broadcast windows left the schedule unclear: "When we weren’t having games, I had to go to my app to see where the game was at." "It's been frustrating for me," he added. "We’ve done a disservice to the fans."
There is a formal timeline that dramatizes Barkley’s point: Shams Charania’s early report on May 17 pre-empted an Amazon Prime announcement that night; two days later the New York Knicks rallied past the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on May 19; and on May 21 Barkley aired his grievances while the Knicks and Cavaliers were scheduled to play Game 2 at Madison Square Garden.
Barkley tempered his criticism with personal regard for the league boss. "I love Adam. Adam’s a great guy," he said, but he did not shy from blame. "But he took the most money," Barkley said, and concluded with a direct challenge: "I think Adam Silver’s got to get a hold of this thing."
The tension Barkley highlighted is literal: enormous contract dollars and an 11-year framework through 2035-36 exist alongside scheduling that Barkley says confuses fans and leaks that undercut broadcast exclusives. With Inside the NBA’s move solidified in November 2024 to air exclusively on and ABC beginning in the 2025-26 season, the gap between rights fees and the viewer experience is now a public argument rather than a private complaint.
Barkley left the show with no hedge. He has called president Burke Magnus and senior vice president Tim Corrigan, and he repeated the charge that the league should care about the optics and the fan experience. His closing assessment was pointed and simple: "I think Adam Silver’s got to get a hold of this thing."
