Charles Barkley calls out ESPN over Inside the NBA while daring network to fire him in brutally honest verdict

It’s safe to say that Charles Barkley is not happy with ESPN.

The former NBA star has only been employed by the network for just over a year, but is already threatening the network to fire him.

Getty

The 62-year-old has been outspoken his entire career, but amid Inside the NBA’s switch to ESPN from TNT, Barkley’s frustrations appear to have hit a boiling point.

In a guest appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show, Barkley fired shots at the network for their decision to not use the Inside the NBA crew as regularly as TNT had in past years.

“We’ve complained, we’ve only been on ESPN four times in three months,” Barkley told Le Batard.

“I don’t like that at all. What I was talking about working all the time, because I love watching basketball – I’m not going to do all these damn shows.

“I’m not gonna be on ESPN One, Two, Three, Deportes, Nacho, Echo, whatever they call it. I’m not gonna be doing all that, but I wish we had been on more during the first half of the season.”

Barkley also joked about previous comments he had made about not wanting to get ‘overworked’ by ESPN following his move to the network.

Now it appears that he feels he is being underworked.

“They’re gonna start making up some of the days,” Barkley added. “But we only worked one day in December, that was Christmas Day.

“And we’re only working one day in January, basically…I wish we had worked more.”

As it stands, Inside the NBA is now set to be on the schedule 15 times through to April 12.

Getty

Getty

Once the NBA playoffs begin, Barkley and his crew, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith are slated to work every night for ESPN all the way through to the NBA Finals.

Perhaps by then, Barkley may no longer feel that he will need any more work.

Barkley isn’t worried about what ESPN thinks, dares them to ‘fire him’

Later in his appearance on The Dan Le Batard show, when discussing the national championship game between the Miami Hurricanes and Indiana Hoosiers, Barkley went off about “punk a** reporters”.

“Can I say [Miami] had a great year?” Barkley jokingly asked. “I don’t want all these punk-ass reporters and clowns talking bad about me like they did that lady in Jacksonville who had a moment of humanity.”

Barkley is of course referring to Jacksonville Free Press reporter Lynn Jones, who went viral for praising Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen mid press-conference after their NFL playoff defeat to the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round.

“Think about that, Dan. Jacksonville had a great year. They won four games last year.

getty

“And we got so many punks on television and on radio now, because I don’t get into the social media stuff, but I started looking and it was a big story brewing. ‘Is this woman serious? She’s supposed to be a journalist.’

“Have we got to the point now where you just have to be an idiot or fool or jack** to be on television or podcast or something now?”

When asked a follow-up question about how the higher-ups at ESPN are reacting to him calling out reporters and the media, Barkley didn’t shy away.

“They can fire me,” Barkley said, with a beaming grin. “I got seven years on my contract.

“I’m 100 percent retired, but if I can do something just a little bit stupid so they have to fire me, they’ll have to pay me for the whole seven years.”

Barkley is truly a one-of-one character, but after having forged a 25-year career in the media following his retirement from the NBA, ESPN knew what they were getting.

Stay up to date with the latest from the NBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.