NBA legend Charles Barkley is not used to holding back his thoughts. This characteristic played a major part in his success as TV personality after retiring from basketball.
Since his retirement in 2000, Barkley joined TNT as an analyst and now is a member of the famous Inside the NBA crew consisting of him, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson.
Former NBA MVP and 11-time All-Star is frustrated with the emergence of cancel culture which is more and more limiting on what he can say on TV.
“It’s got so out of hand right now. I couldn’t imagine having to watch myself. You can’t even have fun nowadays without these jackasses trying to get you cancelled and things like that,” Barkley told Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier on 106.7 the Fan.
He also revealed his plans to retire from television in two years. “Listen, I’m trying hang on for another couple of years till I’m 60 and then they can kiss my ass. I’m only working till 60. I’ve already told them that. I’m not working till the day I die. That’s just stupid,” he said.
“That’s all we ever talk about behind the scenes now is, ‘Yo man, be careful going in this direction.’ I’m like ‘Yo man.’ We can’t even have fun anymore. We’ve had fun all these years, and now all of a sudden in the last year and a half, everybody’s trying to get everybody fired and it really sucks,” Barkley continued.
“Now if you crack a joke the wrong way, they’re like ‘Oh no no no no you crossed the line.’ They won’t even let me talk about San Antonio anymore,” Chuck recalled one of his most well known jokes. “When I’m always talking about them Big ol’ women down in San Antonio, they’re like ‘Charles, we got one lady that wrote an article.’
“First of all, I didn’t call anybody personally fat in San Antonio. I was just joking around,” he said as he proceeded to explain how people enjoyed the joke. “This one lady wrote this article. So I’m like ‘So y’all got one lady.’ We’ve been having fun with this for probably 10-15 years. And when we go to San Antonio the people are having a blast with it.”
Barkley also called his bosses at Turner ‘cowards’ for bending to the cancel culture. You can listen to the full episode of Charles Barkley with Grant and Danny on 106.7 the Fan.
