Charles Barkley will not retire and instead remain with TNT Sports even after it loses the NBA following this upcoming season, TNT announced Tuesday.

Barkley will continue on his 10-year, $210 million contract. He is in the third season of the deal.

“I love my TNT Sports family,” Barkley, 61, said in a statement. “My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible.”

“We have the most amazing people, and they are the best at what they do,” his statement continued. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them both on the shows we currently have and new ones we develop together in the future. This is the only place for me.”

Charles Barkley is NOT retiring and is staying with TNT Sports long term, sources tell @AndrewMarchand. pic.twitter.com/8YpcMEfJyM

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 6, 2024

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Barkley had been a target for ESPN, Amazon Prime Video and NBC, which will begin their 11-year, $77 billion agreements after next season. TNT Sports is trying to stay in business with the NBA by suing the league after the NBA rejected TNT Sports’ offer to match one of the league’s new television deals with Amazon Prime Video.

A week and a half ago, Barkley told The Athletic he was open to staying with TNT Sports if it paid him in full.

“My deal is 10 years, $210 million,” Barkley said in a phone interview at the time. “Turner has to come to me ASAP and they have to guarantee my whole thing or they can offer me a pay cut, which there is no chance of that happening and I’ll be a free agent.”

The two sides now agree that Barkley will not be going anywhere. While TNT Sports is trying its Hail Mary attempt to hold onto the NBA, Barkley will still be utilized on its NCAA Tournament coverage that TNT Sports combines with CBS, while it could explore opportunities with its other properties, including the NHL.

The network is also trying to expand its programming on TNT Sports so it doesn’t seem out of the question that it could either build a new studio program around Barkley or try to keep its iconic “Inside The NBA” together even after next year.

“Charles is one of the best and most beloved sportscasters in the history of television,” TNT Sports chairman Luis Silberwasser said. “I know I speak for all the members of the TNT Sports family when I say we are incredibly thrilled to share this mutual commitment to continue showcasing Charles’ one-of-a-kind talents and entertain fans well into the future.

“We continue to add to the breadth and depth of our sports portfolio — including new properties in the College Football Playoffs, Roland-Garros, NASCAR, BIG EAST college basketball, Mountain West football, among others — and it’s fantastic to have Charles for this journey as we develop new content ideas and shows for our fans.”

Required reading

(Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)

Algerian Imane Khelif will fight for a gold medal after defeating Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in a unanimous decision Tuesday.

Khelif dominated Suwannapheng throughout the match, winning the first three rounds on points. In the final round, Khelif nailed Suwannapheng in the face, and the referee backed the Algerian to the corner and counted to eight. 

Now, the fighter will get to contend for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

The crowd at Arena Paris Nord cheered Khelif throughout the fight. Khelif and Suwannapheng embraced in the middle of the ring after the third round.

The referee raised Khelif’s arm as the winner.

Khelif breezed through the first two fights of the Olympics, defeating Hungarian Luca Anna Hamori via unanimous decision and picking up a victory over Italian Angela Carini.

SOPHIA SMITH LEADS USWNT TO OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL MATCH IN EXTRA-TIME WIN OVER GERMANY

Fans of Algeria’s Imane Khelif cheer her on during the women’s 66-kilogram semifinal boxing match during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris Aug. 6, 2024. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images)

The boxer had been under the microscope over a gender eligibility controversy that started with a disqualification at the 2023 International Boxing Association World Championships.

Khelif and the International Olympic Committee have maintained that the Algerian Olympian is eligible to compete. Khelif declared after the win over Hamori, “I am a woman.”

Suwannapheng will receive a bronze medal with the loss. It’s the first Olympic medal of her career.

There is no fight for the third-place spot.

Imane Khelif of Algeria punches Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand during the women’s 66-kilogam semifinal round match on day 11 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Roland Garros Aug. 6, 2024, in Paris. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

The 66-kilogram final is scheduled for Friday.

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A game that began with a promising start from Clayton Kershaw took a sharp downward turn in the sixth inning Tuesday night, the Dodgers losing reliever Brusdar Graterol to a right-hamstring strain just eight pitches into his season debut and the Philadelphia Phillies rallying for three runs in an eventual 6-2 victory.

Manager Dave Roberts said after the game that Graterol was diagnosed with a Grade 3 (most severe) strain and likely is out for the season. He will be placed on the injured list Wednesday and replaced on the roster by right-hander Michael Grove.

A crowd of 47,150 in Chavez Ravine saw the National League East-leading Phillies win for only the third time in 12 games, while the Dodgers had their three-game win streak snapped and their NL West lead over San Diego reduced to four games.

Kershaw, in his third start back from November shoulder surgery, gave up one earned run and five hits in 4⅔ innings, striking out five and walking none, the Phillies scoring their only run off the 36-year-old left-hander on Kyle Schwarber’s fifth-inning single.

Graterol, who missed the first four months of the season because of a shoulder injury, took the mound to start the sixth with a 1-0 deficit and got Bryce Harper to pop out to third before giving up a single to Alec Bohm.

But as he delivered a 2-and-1 sinker to J.T. Realmuto, Graterol clutched his right hamstring and crumpled on the front of the mound in pain. Graterol had to be helped off the field, his teammates consoling the distraught reliever as he reached the dugout.

Brent Honeywell replaced Graterol and completed a walk to Realmuto before giving up an RBI single to Nick Castellanos, a one-out walk to Brandon Marsh and a two-out, two-run single to Edmundo Sosa for a 4-0 Philadelphia lead.

The Dodgers cut the deficit to 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Teoscar Hernández doubled and scored on Will Smith’s groundout. They put two on with one out in the seventh, but Phillies All-Star left-hander Matt Strahm struck out pinch-hitter Austin Barnes and got Shohei Ohtani to fly out to right.

Hernández’s 25th homer of the season, a 424-foot shot to center off right-hander Jeff Hoffman in the eighth, pulled the Dodgers to within 4-2, but Sosa and Schwarber hit back-to-back solo homers off Honeywell in the ninth for a 6-2 lead.

Kershaw had a solid season debut against San Francisco on July 25, giving up two runs and six hits, striking out six and walking two in four innings of a 6-4 win, but he regressed badly in his second start at San Diego on July 31, giving up seven runs (three earned) and six hits in 3⅓ innings of an 8-1 loss.

Kershaw failed to record a strikeout for the first time in his 424 regular-season starts over 17 years. He averaged less than 90 mph on his fastball, a drop from his season debut, and induced only two swinging strikes on the 41 pitches the Padres swung at.

“The first one, I thought, was really good, the stuff was crisp, sharp,” Roberts said before the game. “The second one, not as crisp across the board.”

The third one — against one of baseball’s best lineups — erased the sour taste of the second one from Kershaw’s mouth and was much better than the first, Kershaw facing the minimum nine batters through three innings and yielding only a broken-bat single to Austin Hays, who was thrown out at second base to end the third.

Kershaw gave up one-out singles to Trea Turner and Harper to put runners on first and third in the fourth, but escaped the jam by striking out Bohm with a 74-mph curve in the dirt and getting Realmuto to ground out to third.

The Phillies created more traffic in the fifth when Hays doubled to left with one out and Marsh was hit by a pitch. Kershaw won a nine-pitch duel with Sosa, striking out the second baseman with an 83-mph split-changeup.

But Schwarber, who struck out in his first two at-bats, lofted a full-count slider that dropped in front of center fielder Kevin Kiermaier for a single and a 1-0 Phillies lead. Right-hander Joe Kelly replaced Kershaw and got Turner to fly out to center.

Kershaw threw 81 pitches, 55 for strikes, and induced 10 swinging strikes. His four-seam fastball averaged 90.4 mph and he did a better job of mixing his 86.2-mph sliders and 73.1-mph curves.

“As a competitor you want to be great, you want to be perfect, every time out, but I just don’t think that’s a realistic expectation,” Roberts said. “Let’s just try to build on the positives from each outing and keep on building.”

Short hops

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, out since June 16 because of a rotator cuff strain, threw a 30-pitch bullpen session Tuesday. The right-hander will travel with the team and throw to hitters in Milwaukee next week, “and hopefully, if that goes well, we’ll keep building from there,” Roberts said, adding that the Dodgers remain “hopeful” that Yamamoto, who went 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 14 starts, will return in September.