It’s been a month since Charles Barkley announced he’s going to be on TV for only another year. We’re still struggling to come to terms with it. Fingers crossed behind our backs, he cancels retirement. At this time, he gave a teeny-tiny sliver of hope of possibly pulling a Michael Jordan. He doubled down on his retirement plans during an appearance on CNBC’s Closing Bell live from Nevada on Thursday. It was shortly after the NBA confirmed a media rights deal with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC, with room for TNT to match.

As a veteran media personality himself, Dominic Chu had to ask if TNT retained the NBA and if there was a better financial offer on the table, would Chuck consider coming out of retirement? The Chuckster had the most Chuckster response. “Hey, if I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest idiot, fool in the world,” Barkley said on CNBC’s Closing Bell.

Translation: If Chuck was strapped for money, he would consider canceling retirement. He had joked about it a week before announcing his retirement during the NBA Finals as well. In a different show, he said he’d need to keep working to put his toddler grandchildren through college.

The thing though, Barkley believes he’s made enough money. “I’ve been so lucky and blessed. I played in the NBA for 15 years, I’ve been on television for 24 years. If I don’t have enough money by now, I’m the biggest loser in the world,” he further told Chu.

Chuck’s NBA career earnings total to $40 million. He joined TNT in 2000 as soon as he retired as a player, and was credited for making Inside the NBA the cultural phenomenon it is. With each contract extension at TNT came a pay raise. He signed a 10-year extension in 2022, reportedly guaranteeing a $10 million annual salary. Savvy business and stock investments have grown his net worth to $60 million. Where money could be a big factor in keeping Chuck on TV, he’s also open about being content with what he has.

TNT or nothing for Charles Barkley

A couple of years ago, LIV Golf was reportedly on the verge of luring Chuck from TNT. Barkley ‘joked’ then that he’d kill a relative for $200 million. But that deal fizzled out and he renewed his partnership with Turner in 2022. His contract, though, had a clause so he could leave before its completion.

Barkley has been critical of Warner Bros’ leadership’s handling of the NBA media rights negotiations. Despite that, he declared in his retirement announcement he wouldn’t consider working anywhere but TNT. He reaffirmed it to Chu this week. “The main reason I was talking about next year being my last year – I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to work for another network. It’ll be 25 years that I’ve been working with Turner, and I love everybody at Turner, but at this age to go and start over, I don’t know if I want to do that.”

Barkley has seemingly accepted that TNT has lost the NBA for good. Yet he’s hoping for jobs to be saved the way we’re hoping he changes his mind.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.