Charles Barkley, the NBA’s most controversial TV analyst, says he’s getting out of the game soon.
“I love my job,” Barkley told SI.com in a shocking interview posted yesterday. “But I have four years left on my current deal and to be honest with you, it’s going to be a struggle for me to make it for the whole four years.
“I really don’t know how much longer I’m going to do this. I need something more or something else to do, to be honest with you.”
Barkley, an undisputed All-Star during 14 seasons in the NBA, has been a TV analyst for the cable channel TNT ever since he left the game in 2000.
“I only thought I would do this for three or four years, but now I have been doing it for 13 years,” Barkley said. “When I got to my fifth year of broadcasting I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do this a couple of more years.’
“But now I’m like, ‘Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract it will be 17 years.’
“Seventeen years is a long time. It’s a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me.”
The plain-speaking Barkley has said in the past that he wants to run for governor of Alabama, his home state, in 2014 — but has recently wavered.
Barkley — who famously said that pro athletes should not be considered role models — claimed to be a registered Republican but has been highly critical of the GOP in the last two presidential elections.