Barkley has been pretty adamant about his brethren in the Retired Players Association being fairly compensated.
“My job is to take care of the older players and we’ve been having this argument with NBA 2K for 20 years now,” he said.
“Unless they give the retired players x-amount of money they cannot use my likeness. And, I think I’m not even going to think about that anymore. They’re gonna give some money to the retired players, or they’ll never be able to use my likeness, period.”
Added Barkley:
“Listen, that game makes hundreds of millions of dollars. They can use the write-off. Listen, my phone is always open.”
Unfortunate as it is for us, his stance is certainly understandable, and very admirable. He raises an excellent point. With all the "recurrent revenue" and record-setting sales, you'd think 2K would take him up on the offer. Not only would it get him into the game, but it would be an appropriate gesture given how the historical content in NBA 2K has been such a strong selling point for the series since 2010.