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The Entire Charles Barkley–LIV Golf Saga Seems … Off

Also in Traina Thoughts: Dwight Howard wants to be a WWE superstar; NFL rookie has pipes; Joe Buck prepares for the NFL season and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. In the end, the Charles Barkley situation with LIV Golf and Turner Sports ended up the way it should—with Barkley remaining on TNT exclusively. However, the entire saga was bizarre from start to finish.

Barkley told the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand on Friday that he’s staying with Turner for the rest of his career. And that LIV did not make him an offer.

Let’s take a look at the time line of how all this played out:

• In mid-June, Barkley talked about the controversy surrounding LIV on The Pat McAfee Show and said “if someone gave me $200 million, I’d kill a relative.”

• In mid-July, Barkley told The Next Round podcast that he’s going to meet with LIV about a possible role with the tour.

• Last week, Dan Patrick said that Barkley told him he may have to leave TNT to join LIV.

• Earlier this week, Barkley told Patrick that LIV would need to triple his salary from TNT and endorsements (about $20 million) to get him, but that LIV had until Thursday to make an offer.

• Today it’s over, with Barkley telling Marchand, it’s best for him to move on from LIV.

The entire saga was weird from start to finish. A basketball guy would leave the greatest sports studio show of all time to go … golf? When that golf organization doesn’t even have a TV deal?

And LIV wooed Barkley, but never made him an offer?

Barkley doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would cause a publicity stunt to get more money out of his bosses, but it appears that’s how this ended up playing out.

When Patrick guessed that Barkley makes $20 million per year between Turner and endorsements, Barkley confirmed. And when people found out that Barkley makes $10 million from Turner, the consensus was that he was underpaid when you compare his value to the rest of the people in sports broadcasting.

There isn’t a more powerful person in sports media than Barkley. Nobody moves the needle like he does. It’s not hard to believe that Barkley saw the salaries for others in sports media, especially in the NFL where the money went haywire recently, and felt he deserves more.

Barkley has said over and over that, once his current contract with Turner expires, he’s done doing television. Now he’s putting out a statement saying that he will be with Turner for the rest of his TV career, which implies he’ll be sticking around for longer than just a year or two.

And whether this was all done intentionally to get Turner to pay up and give Barkley a new deal, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Barkley making that move. That’s business.

But everything surrounding Barkley and LIV still seems weird.

2. The WWE held open tryouts in Nashville on Thursday, and one of the people who showed up was the Lakers’ Dwight Howard, who cut an impressive promo.

3. Eagles rookie defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who was drafted 13th out of Georgia, had his team feeling good at training camp after belting out Rick James’s “Mary Jane.”

4. NFL players lift weights, do drills and study the playbook during training camp to get ready for the season. NFL broadcasters get ready for the season by making sure their hair is on point.

5. We have a follow-up on the Choco Taco news we wrote about earlier this week in Traina Thoughts.

6. This week’s episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features two interviews.

First up is John Ourand from Sports Business Journal. Ourand talks about the Barkley/LIV Golf story, the latest news on which streaming service will land NFL Sunday Ticket, what will happen to bars and restaurants when Sunday Ticket goes to streaming and how DirecTV will be affected by losing Sunday Ticket.

Following Ourand, Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer joins the podcast to share his insight on Vince McMahon retiring from WWE. Why did McMahon retire now? Is there any chance McMahon will be back? What changes can fans expect with Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, in charge of the creative? Where does Vince’s son, Shane, stand right now? When will fans see changes to the TV product?

The podcast wraps up with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment with Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York. This week, Jimmy and Sal discuss the Radio Hall of Fame, the discontinuation of the Choco Taco ice cream treat, the most amount of money they’d pay for a concert 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: Forty years ago today, Andy Kaufman, Jerry “The King” Lawler and David Letterman gave us one of the most memorable moments in late-night history.

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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