There are very few NBA fans who don’t enjoy tuning in to watch the “NBA on TNT” show with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, and Charles Barkley. However, there would be zero fans who would have not loved the show if one big move had gone through. In a recent bombshell from Barkley, it appears that Kobe Bryant nearly joined the show and actually had a deal in place to do so.
Of course, every NBA fan knows that Bryant passed away on January 26th, 2020 in a tragic helicopter crash. How amazing would it have been to have Bryant star on the well-loved TV segment?
Charles Barkley dished quite a bit of information on the near deal in a recent quote about “NBA on TNT” and Kobe Bryant actually reaching a deal.
“We actually hired Kobe Bryant…but he didn’t want to do all the bulls—t,” Barkley said. “…He actually signed with us. But we started telling him, we have to do a bunch of radio shows…He’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to do all that stuff.’ We tell him you have to promote the show, Kobe.”
“We were excited, then [former president of Turner David Levy] called me back 10 days later like, ‘Kobe’s not gonna come.’ And we were like, ’why?’ Because he don’t wanna do all the PR stuff. He don’t. wann go on radio shows and talk about basketball. I’m like, ‘well that’s part of the gig. … that’s part of promoting the show.’ It’s funny, though, he didn’t want to do all that and he never came work for us.”
Wow. It doesn’t get much closer than that. No one can blame Kobe Bryant for not wanting to do all of the PR work.
Despite the deal not going through, it would have been an awesome opportunity for fans to hear one of the top IQ NBA players of all-time break down the sport he loved. Bryant was always entertaining to listen to and this opportunity would have been a great one. Unfortunately, it’s something that ended up falling through.
All of that being said, we continue to keep Kobe Bryant’s family in our prayers. Losing a legend is never easy, but this piece of news simply seems to rob us of even more entertainment that Bryant would have brought. At least we know more about how this almost happened, thanks to Charles Barkley.
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