Charles Barkley names his price to join LIV Golf and the outrage that comes with it
Whereas golfers have tiptoed round their negotiations with LIV Golf and steadily bristle at questions about the league, Charles Barkley is taking no such tack.
The Basketball Corridor of Famer and TNT broadcaster is approaching his flirtation with the controversial Saudi Arabia-backed golf league as he does most topics — with candor.
Barkley, who’s acknowledged that he is in negotiations with LIV Golf and is enjoying within the league’s New Jersey Professional-Am this week at a Trump golf course, spoke with The Dan Patrick Present on Monday in regards to the talks. He named his worth to hitch the league as a broadcaster whereas acknowledging that it might mark the tip of his TNT profession. He then gave the league an ultimatum.
So what wouldn’t it take for Barkley to hitch LIV Golf?
Barkley referenced the reported “loopy” LIV Golf paydays secured by the league’s high names together with $200 million for Phil Mickelson and $150 million for Dustin Johnson.
“If they provide me one thing loopy, I am gonna take it too,” Barkley advised Patrick.
When requested what sort of provide would safe his companies, Barkley considered it however stopped in need of naming a particular quantity.
“Contemplating how a lot I make now, it might take a very large quantity for me to surrender my life proper now,” Barkley continued. “I am not gonna quit my life for … I do not like to speak about how a lot cash I make.”
Patrick then framed the query in a way that did immediate Barkley to acknowledge a particular quantity, asking him if he would signal on for thrice his hypothetical $20 million in annual revenue, a quantity that Barkley confirmed was near correct.
“In the event that they triple it, subsequent time I am in your present, the primary query higher be ‘Charles, the place we celebrating at tonight?’ That must be your first query in the event that they triple what I am making now.”
So there you have got it. Charles Barkley will bolt for LIV Golf if they provide him $60 million a 12 months — or someplace thereabouts. Would he take much less? He did not say.
Barkley then advised Patrick that he must have a proposal quickly, or discussions are over.
“I am gonna give him a deadline,” Barkley mentioned of LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. “The deadline’s gonna be Thursday. … I am not gonna maintain TNT in limbo, to be trustworthy with you. I do not suppose it is truthful to them. …
“They’ve gotten loads of play out of me coming to play up there Thursday. I am not simply gonna be no present pony. I received y’all pub for every week. Do not be losing my time. I am not gonna waste ya’ll time. However after I depart New Jersey Thursday night time, if I haven’t got a proposal in hand, it is over.”
A fraught determination for Barkley
Whereas Barkley’s negotiating in public, he is making one factor clear. He has a worth to hitch a league that is funded wholly by a Saudi Arabian government with a considerable track record of human rights abuses. That the league is shelling out such exorbitant numbers to draw high expertise means that it’s certainly a “sportswashing” effort to legitimize a regime on a world stage quite than a profit-focused enterprise.
It is a tactic that is been used on the worldwide sports activities stage earlier than. See Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime and the 1936 Olympics. See, extra steadily, the the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and 2022. See the upcoming World Cup in Qatar that is reportedly actively engaging in human rights atrocities to construct the services that may stage the video games.
Barkley has balked on the commentary surrounding LIV Golf, lambasting critics as engaging in “selective outrage.“
“Hear, they’re making up phrases, like blood cash and sportswashing,” Barkley advised the New York Publish final week. “I mentioned, ‘We’ve all taken blood cash and all of us have sportswashed one thing, so I don’t like these phrases, to be trustworthy with you.”
“In case you are in professional sports activities, you’re taking some kind of cash from not an ideal trigger.”
The NBA’s relationship with China is steadily held up for instance that Barkley’s citing. The league actively does enterprise with a nation likewise known for for an active record of human rights abuses. The NBA and its gamers who conduct enterprise with China are the topic of truthful criticism.
In the meantime the U.S. authorities actively conducts enterprise with the Saudis as demonstrated by President Joe Biden’s visit to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman final week amid surging oil costs. The U.S. government holds bin Salman responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
There’s righteous criticism available round. There’s additionally a notable distinction between the NBA’s relationship with China and LIV Golf’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. The NBA does not exist solely to prop up China. LIV Golf, in the meantime, exists as a mechanism to enhance Saudi Arabia’s standing on the worldwide stage with the paychecks signed by the Saudi authorities. And that is the crux of the outrage concentrating on LIV Golf.
If Barkley does join these paychecks, he is likewise signing up for the fallout that accompanies his determination. Meaning the attainable finish to his stint as a beloved NBA broadcaster that is outlined his post-playing profession. It means shifting on from the forefront of sports activities commentary to a distinct segment league that does not have a broadcast deal. It means alienating a good portion of his fanbase.
And he seems at peace with all of that that. So long as the value is true.
