Charles Barkley is once again floating retirement ahead of a new NBA season, and this time he is claiming he will not be the only one to quit.
In a recent appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Barkley claimed that the upcoming season will be his last on “Inside the NBA.” He added that longtime host Ernie Johnson also intends to retire after the 2026-27 season.
“Me and Ernie are a package deal,” Barkley said, via Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing. “So right now, unless Ernie changes his mind, next year is my last year 100 percent.”
Johnson has not made any public statements about his future, so Barkley’s comments are all we have to go by on that front.
This is far from the first time Barkley has talked about retiring. He initially said he did not intend to work past the age of 60, and also said he would retire if TNT lost the rights to the NBA. He is now 63 and still working even though ESPN now has the rights to “Inside the NBA,” so needless to say, he has changed his mind a few times about this topic.
Barkley signed a 10-year, $210 million contract with Turner in 2022, and he still has more than a half a decade left on that deal.
