ESPN CEO about Charles Barkley: 'I would be lying if I said we weren't interested'

Charles Barkley could be the hottest free agent on the market next year if he hits the market.

While Warner Bros. Discovery is feuding with the NBA in court in hopes of regaining some of the league’s media rights before 2025, there is already a line of suitors for Barkley, the company’s biggest sports star.

ESPN’s head of content, Burke Magnus, said Tuesday that he would be interested in bringing Barkley to the network if he was available. When asked at a Front Office Sports conference in New York if he could see a world with Barkley at ESPN, Magnus said he could.

“Yes,” Magnus said at the “Tuned In” conference. “That would be a perfect world. … I’d be lying if I said we weren’t interested in Charles. The entire sector is interested.”

NBC Chairman Mark Lazerus said he would also be interested in Barkley. NBC will begin broadcasting the NBA next season.

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Whether Barkley would be interested in ESPN or NBC is another question. The Basketball Hall of Famer, who has been part of TNT’s iconic studio show “Inside the NBA” since 2000, said in August that he would remain with TNT Sports even after it lost the NBA. Barkley is in the third year of a 10-year, $210 million deal.

“I love my TNT Sports family,” Barkley, 61, said in a statement in August. “My number 1 priority was and remains our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible.

“We have the most amazing people, and they are the best at what they do,” his statement continued. “I look forward to continuing to work with them, both on the shows we currently have and on new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me.”

In July, Disney, NBC and Amazon won the bidding rights for the NBA’s next media deal, which will start in the 2025-2026 season and last 11 years. The agreements with the three companies are worth a total of $77 billion. WBD did not receive a share of the rights and sued the NBA to enforce what it believed to be the corresponding rights under the current contract.

That lawsuit is currently in New York State District Court, with a schedule set for the trial to take place in April.