Charles Barkley announces retirement from TV

• The companies had an exclusive window to negotiate for a contract extension, but it has closed.
• Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to become a fourth partner in a reported proposed deal with ESPN, Comcast's NBC and Amazon.

The bottom line: The NBA's media rights given the new potential deal are worth $76 billion.

• If Warner Bros. Discovery loses the NBA, it could pose an existential threat for TNT, which WBD owns, Axios' Tim Baysinger writes.

Barkley didn't get into the specifics in his announcement.

What he's saying: "I don't know what's gonna happen," he said. "I hope we stay with TNT, but I want to tell y'all personally 'cause I'm done doing interviews."

• He said that next year would be his last in TV "no matter what happens," and he repeatedly thanked his "NBA family."
• "You know, there's been a lot of noise around our network the last few months," Barkley said, "and I just want to say I've talked to all the other networks, but I ain't going nowhere other than TNT."

Go deeper:

• Charles Barkley to donate $1M to New Orleans school
• Crunch time for WBD