Retired NBA great, Charles Barkley, has been a popular NBA analyst for TNT's "Inside The NBA" for the past eight years, but he wants a change.

In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, the 46-year-old revealed that he wants to join an NBA team. Not as a player, but rather in the front office.

Barkley said he wants to take on the role of a team's general manager.

"It's time for me to be a general manager," he told the paper. "I think everybody around me knows it's time for me to take a different challenge. I always want to keep going as a person."

His aspiration to become a suit isn't because he's unhappy with his current gig, Barkley says he's just ready to grow.

"I love my job. I love the people I work with, but now it's time for me to take on another challenge as a man," he said. "I need to grow as a person, and it's time for me. And certainly I can do a better job than some of these guys have been doing."

Several Hall of Fame players have made the transition, successfully, such as Jerry West and Joe Dumars. But others, didn't -- some examples being Michael Jordan and Elgin Baylor.

Barkley isn't leaving TNT at the moment. Right now, he says a good position would have to present itself before he'd give TNT his walking papers.

"If a good opportunity came up, I would take it," Barkley said. "I think people sometimes get confused with taking a job and taking a bad job. Every job is not a good job, but I think if a good job came up, I would take it. But I am not going to leave TNT for no bad job."

Barkley retired from the in 2000, after a 16-year career, where he averaged just over 22 ppg. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Since retiring as a player, Barkley went on to become a successful commentator on TNT, has written several books -- including I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It in 2002 and Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man? -- and has shown an interest in politics (in October 2008, he announced that he will be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014).