NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was a guest of the Dan Patrick Show today and in addition to talking NBA playoffs, the two talked about the media rights negotiations going on with the NBA. Reports indicate NBC has worked hard and offered a lot of money, $2.5 billion annually, to steal the rights away from TNT.

“What is the future of NBA on TNT, your show?” Patrick asked Barkley.

“I have zero idea,” he said. “It’s interesting that you ask me that question because I think today is the deadline. I don’t know. It’s nerve wracking for everybody, it’s very stressful, but I don’t think anybody knows. Listen, I love TNT. I hope we keep it. I talked to Ernie last night. I think they are going to make a decision by the end of the day. I don’t think any of us know what that decision is going to be. It’s very stressful at work right now.”

Patrick asked, “If the NBA goes away, are you a free agent?” Barkley replied, “Yes.”

“Is Shaq?” Patrick followed up. “I don’t know their contract situations, but I made sure [on mine],” Barkley said. “We had a disagreement when we were redoing my deal a couple years ago about what happens if we lose the NBA…I wanted to put myself in the best possible scenario.

“I said, ‘Guys, I am not signing a new contract unless I can be a free agent in two years.’ Now, I want to make it clear, I love TNT. I love everybody at TNT, they have been great for me. But I don’t want to be in limbo if we lose the NBA, that wouldn’t be fair to me…I wanted to make it perfectly clear, ‘If y’all lose the NBA I want to be a free agent.’ I hope we sign the NBA; I love TNT, but its nerve wracking right now.”

Patrick brought up the reports that Ernie Johnson has said he would stay at TNT even if they lose the NBA. Barkley said he realizes there are other things Johnson does at TNT, but he, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal are there for NBA basketball.

Could the show continue somewhere else with a different host?

“I don’t know how it works without Ernie,” Barkley said. “And I can’t speak for NBC. I don’t know if they’d want all three of us. Our show won’t be the same without Ernie. Ernie is the most important person on our show.”

Barkley brought up all the various mergers they have been through and the personnel they have lost.

“…We have merged three times in the last five years, and we have fired hundreds of people. If we lose the NBA, I can’t imagine how bad it’s going to be at Turner, but I really hope we keep the NBA.”

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout has suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee. As Trout spoke to the media about the industry, it was apparent that he was dismayed and frustrated about the news. During Wednesday’s edition of First Take on ESPN, featured commentator and executive producer Stephen A. Smith questioned Trout as to why he was always hurt and proceeded to compare baseball to other sports, an opinion that agitated several baseball fans and commentators.

“Mike Trout is a sensational player when he’s healthy,” Smith said. “One of the greatest – he really, really is – and I’m a huge, huge fan, but I’ve grown disgusted with his lack of availability. I know he looks the part. What the hell are you doing to take care of yourself?”

Station anchor Jerry Recco played the audio of Smith’s opinion on Trout on the Boomer & Gio morning show on WFAN and CBS Sports Network on Friday morning. He agreed with him on the first part of his take that it was annoying to see him hurt. From there though, Smith spoke about baseball in such a manner that led Foul Territory host Scott Braun to state that he was “attacking our sport” in a recent edition of the podcast.

“Damn, it’s baseball,” Smith said. “I mean, what are we talking about here? It’s not football, it’s not boxing, it’s not UFC. You’re not running up and down the court 94 feet in basketball for 82 nights a year. It’s baseball. Half the time y’all are standing out in the outfield chewing on pumpkin seeds or something.”

Jonathan Papelbon, a former relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies who was named as a co-host on the Foul Territory podcast in late March, responded to Smith’s discourse on the show. The remarks began with Papelbon remarking that Smith makes these kinds of comments when he is not knowledgeable about what is being discussed. From there, he relayed a story from when Smith was a newspaper writer and attending Phillies games as a member of the media. It came from a conversation with one of the team’s clubhouse attendants who revealed to Papelbon that the team had kicked Smith out of the clubhouse.

“I said, ‘Well, why did y’all kick him out of the clubhouse,’ and he proceeds to tell me that he was doing all kind of shady sh**,” Papelbon said. “Like going through the manager’s office and when he wasn’t in there, going through the training room pulling out reports in all kinds of places he shouldn’t have been, so for me I’ve always looked at the guy like a complete joke.”

Papelbon proceeded to opine that he does not refer to Smith as a journalist, but rather an analyst. Once Smith was presumably kicked out of the Phillies clubhouse, Papelbon believed that he should not have been allowed to cover anyone, ostensibly questioning his journalistic integrity.

“Since that day, I truly do believe that Major League Baseball has kicked him out, and therefore he has all this negative sh** to say about Major League Baseball because I don’t really truly think that he’s allowed in Major League Baseball clubhouses. I don’t know if the Phillies reported this or what they did with it.”

As the segment continued, Papelbon referenced previous incidents with which sports fans took umbrage. Some of these included using the N-word on air when discussing former Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and conveying that having an interpreter did not help baseball fans gravitate towards then-Los Angeles Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani. Papelbon later referred to Smith as a “racist,” along with calling him “xenophobic” and a “fake person.”

“You’re talking about one of the most narcissistic people you could come across, and the fact that he uses his middle name, A., which probably stands for ‘a**hole,’ is such a joke to me. He doesn’t really even truly know the game of baseball, so therefore his lack of intellect and the way he approaches what he says is just for spite or just to piss off a player or to get thumbs up or followers.

“I challenge ESPN to either fire him or cut his pay or do something about it because, honestly, nobody wants to listen to his shit because everybody knows that is just for likes; it’s just for followers,” Papelbon said. “He really doesn’t actually know what he’s saying, so I don’t really take it as anything to be honest with you. I just take it [as], ‘This is just another idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’”

WFAN morning show co-host Gregg Giannotti questioned off what premise that Smith was racist, to which Recco replied that he was not aware. Moreover, he believes that Smith will issue a response to Papelbon’s statements since “he doesn’t usually let this stuff sit.” Recco referred to an episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast when Smith castigated former ESPN personality Jason Whitlock and vowed not to speak on him again.

“Does he need to respond?,” Giannotti questioned. “He’s making $16 million a year with every job that he has. Jonathan Papelbon’s doing this baseball podcast from his bathroom.”

WFAN afternoon host Tiki Barber stopped by the WIP studios in Philadelphia today to chat up his old boss Spike Eskin along with Ike Reese and Jason Fritz who together host 94WIP Afternoons. Eskin was the programming boss at WFAN before recently moving back to Philadelphia to host the afternoon show. Barber is in Philadelphia to attend Knicks-Sixers Game 6 with New York leading the series three games to two.

After talking about the game and the series, as well as some football, Ike Reese asked Barber about his relationship with a few people he had been in the news for having feuds with. A couple of months ago, Ryan Clark of ESPN had been critical of Barber for comments he had made about Saquon Barkley and his departure from the New York Giants when he signed a three-year deal with the Eagles.

Barber had previosuly suggested it was preposterous for Barkley to even consider playing for the Eagles due to the rivalry between the two franchises. When Barkley did join the hated rival, Barber claimed the NFL star was “dead” to him.

When talking about what Barber had said about Barkley, Clark said on an episode of The Pivot podcast, “Tiki taught me what I didn’t want to be as a veteran. Tiki taught me how you don’t make a young player feel welcome, how you don’t make a young player feel like this could one day be his team. The way he made me feel as a young rookie and a second-year player, I said I don’t ever want to be that dude. And he’s continued to be that person.”

Ike Reese asked Barber, “Have you made up?”

“I haven’t talked to Saquon; I don’t have his number. But I saw Ryan Clark and we made up.”

“You and Ryan Clark made up? That’s good, because y’all are two of my favorites,” Reese said “I love Ryan and he does a great job on ESPN, but he was a little bit out of line.”

“He was commenting on something that he wasn’t a party to,” Barber responded.