Charles Barkley said on The Bill Simmons Podcast he'd join a potential Suns ownership group that included former President Barack Obama.
Simmons initiated the conversation by suggesting Barkley is being asked to join one of the ownership groups looking to buy the Suns.
“My phone has been blowing up, but I tell them like, guys, I am very well paid, but I don’t have $4 billion dollars just sitting around,” Barkley said. “'Cause the team is probably going to go for $4 billion dollars.”“I got money, but I’m not going to waste a lot of money for 5% so I can say, I’m one of the owners of a team,” Barkley said. “I’d rather have that money because my ego is not like, yeah, I’m one of the owners of the Suns.
“TNT asked me like ‘We need something from you. Would you give us something?’ and I said, ‘What do you want?’ They’re like, ‘We need you to stay longer. We can’t lose you and bid on the NBA.’” Barkley said last week on the Dan Patrick Show, in addressing the contract negotiations. Barkley said he told TNT, “I don’t want to work till the day I drop dead,” but TNT is looking to have Barkley in the fold as the network looks to continue its partnership with the NBA.
“I think they’re going to start bidding on the NBA really soon,” Barkley continued. “They said, ‘We can’t let you leave in three years and bid on the NBA.' So they asked me if I would sign for a couple more years and I said, ‘You guys have been great to me, I’ll stay on a couple more years.’ There’s probably zero chance I’m gonna stay for the entire 10 years.”