If binge-watching Jack Bauer run around ruining bad guys’ plans in a day has taught us anything, it’s that things can get very dramatic in 24 hours. On Wednesday, we celebrated Charles Barkley calling off retirement and staying at TNT. On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery took a $9.1 billion hit. During this, TNT Sports is heading into a legal battle with the NBA and also talking to its on-air personalities. Unlike Chuck, his fellow Inside Guys have been rather silent about their plans. Shaquille O’Neal has especially kept it vague whether it’s his friend’s retirement or its cancellation. Now, there’s a looming fear that the WBD’s crisis will impact further negotiations with Barkley’s colleagues.

Most industry insiders believe the multi-hyphenate entrepreneur Shaq doesn’t need to work on TNT but he wants to keep the band together. Barkley’s recent comments could hint at how O’Neal might negotiate.

Charles Barkley gives positive insight into TNT

Before WBD’s stock nosedived, Barkley was on the Dan Patrick Show to confess why he called off the retirement. TNT’s execs flew to Philadelphia to meet him. He previously told Patrick that Turner is obligated to have a conversation with him and agree on his retirement terms, and if they made him take a pay cut, he’d go to another network. This talk went differently.

Turner’s reps said that they’re going to keep Inside the NBA running. Barkley, whose priority was to save the jobs at TNT, agreed. He also made an unexpected offer, “I said I’ll take a pay cut,” Barkley said in case they wanted to offset the production costs. But, they assured him it won’t be necessary. The result? Sir Charles said he’d be seeing his $210 million contract through. He did, however, tell Patrick he won’t stay for the entirety of the 10 years.

In the lead-up to it, Turner had conveyed rebranding plans with Barkley at the helm. Patrick implied that it could be something like SportsCenter. TNT still has college basketball among other sports. It’s expanding its AEW partnership and added College Football Playoffs and ATP events. Shaq and Chuck are massive wrestling and football fans. So, rebranding Inside the NBA into a general sports show doesn’t seem impossible. Even though Barkley had confessed he doesn’t know anything about tennis.

Conceptually, it looks like TNT will survive losing the NBA with the Inside Guys. But a financial setback possibly put those plans in jeopardy.

Will Shaq feel the impact of WBD’s crisis?

WBD’s situation is a complicated one. Apart from the stock crashing to near all-time lows, the revenue was at $9.7 billion which is well below the prediction of analysts. But it has seen a massive boost in its streaming arm to 103 million more subscribers. The loss has hit its DTC businesses including its legacy channels like CNN, HBO, TNT, TLC, and others. Barkley warned several times before that it’s inevitable as cord-cutting increases with a shift to streaming.

But since the merger of the studio business and the cable side in 2022, the impact has been felt all over. Breaking it up again would create a content distribution nightmare. For instance, WBD is still discussing the AEW media rights, but it’s already launched TNT Overdrive with AEW stars. Can WBD’s financial crisis affect AEW negotiations? Who knows!

Layoffs have hit across the Warner Bros empire too (it’s unclear if TNT had any) putting Chuck’s dream to save jobs in jeopardy. His other dream is to keep working with the same guys – Shaq, Kenny, and Ernie.

O’Neal hasn’t been a verbal rollercoaster like his friend. He assured fans that they’d survive a couple of times. After the NBA picked Amazon, O’Neal said he was unsure how it would go but implied he wants to keep working with the TNT crew, including Adam Lefkoe and Jamal Crawford, too. Such signs have given social media users a reason to speculate he is inclined to stay. If he’d offer to take a pay cut, that’s unpredictable.

At this point, TNT doesn’t know how they’d keep their promise to Barkley either. They told him they’d “figure it out” during the final season of Inside the NBA. Till then, everyone’s on the edge of their seats waiting for Shaq’s decision.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.