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Charles Barkley Reveals Salary It Would Take for Him to Leave Turner and Join LIV Golf

Also in Traina Thoughts: Red Sox rough weekend. Chris "Mad Dog" Russo is a Hall of Famer; Ron Burgundy/Ron Jeremy mix up and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. Charles Barkley is unlike any broadcaster in the history of sports media. There isn’t one other person of his profile who would go on a national radio show and give all the details of his negotiations with one company and where he stands with another company.

But Barkley did that Monday during an interview with Dan Patrick, where he openly talked about possibly joining the LIV Golf Tour and leaving TNT.

In addition to saying, “Of course it’s about the money” and that LIV would have to give him an “astronomical” deal to get him to leave Turner Sports, Barkley gave Patrick a bunch of information about where he stands with TNT and LIV.

  • Barkley had dinner with LIV Golf chief Greg Norman last week, but LIV has not made Barkley an official offer.
  • Turner has not reached out or spoken to Barkley about his future. “They’ve been very quiet,” said Barkley.
  • Barkley told Patrick he makes around $20 million per year between Turner and sponsorships. If LIV offered $60 million annually, Barkley would take the LIV offer.
  • Barkley said he’s given LIV enough publicity for the week. If LIV doesn't make him an offer by Thursday night, he's done with possibly joining LIV. “I”m not going to keep TNT in limbo,” said Barkley.

Given the money LIV has thrown at golfers, I’d be stunned if they didn’t give Barkley the money he wants. It’s pretty jarring, but I honestly think we’ve seen the last of Barkley on Inside the NBA.

And while the Barkley comments are the news here, I need to say one thing: Dan Patrick is a tremendous interviewer. He asked Barkley every question that needed to be asked.

2. The Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 28–5 on Friday, 4–1 on Saturday and 8–4 on Sunday. That adds up to 40 runs for Toronto and 10 for Boston. The Red Sox were done in by a comedy of errors that you have to see to believe.

3. Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas showed up to his postgame interviews Sunday wearing a cowboy hat.

That lead to studio analyst Al Hrabosky wanting to make a Ron Burgundy reference. However, Hrabosky dropped the name of a famous porn star instead, which led to a great reaction from Hrabosky's on-air partner.

4. WWE on Monday officially announced Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan as co–chief executive officers. 

More importantly for WWE viewers, the company also announced that Triple H, aka Paul Levesque, "will assume all responsibilities related to WWE’s creative, in addition to his regular duties."

It will be fascinating to see whether Levesque can implement any changes he wants, considering that while Vince McMahon is gone from the company, he's still Levesque's father-in-law.

5. I missed this last week because I don't pay attention to anything related to the ESPYs, but Kevin Durant responding on Twitter to Peyton Manning's jokes about him at the 2017 ESPYs was vintage Kevin Durant.

6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features a fun conversation with the always entertaining Peter Schrager.

Topics covered include the changes to the Good Morning Football cast, inside stories from Sean McVay's recent wedding, Zach Wilson’s recent turn in the spotlight, which current NFL players would make good broadcasters, the death of comedy in movies, Succession and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Congratulations to Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. It was announced Monday morning that the Doggie will be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame later this year. In honor of the occasion, let’s revisit a classic Mad Dog moment.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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