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RedState’s Jim Thompson brought you the story of how former NBA player Kendrick Perkins implied on ESPN’s “First Take” that the NBA’s Most Valuable Player vote is racist, and that white players are viewed more favorably than black players. Former sharpshooter JJ Redick clapped back, saying, “what we just witnessed is the problem with this show, where we create narratives that do not exist in reality.”
The two then got into a shouting match.
Leave it to 11-time all-star and 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player Charles Barkley to set things straight. Not only was “the round mound of rebound” fun to watch as a player, but he’s also now enjoying a hugely-successful career as an analyst on TNT and is one of the most outspoken and funny men in sports.
He didn’t seem to find Perkins’ comments humorous, though, when he phoned into Denver’s Altitude Sports Radio with Vic Lombardi, Marc Moser, and Brett Kane. After he was played a recording of the remarks, he took a long pause, but then let loose:
Hey man, I’m trying to work on my golf game and y’all bringing me on ready to talk about stupid stuff…
You know what? That’s asinine and silly. Asinine, silly, stupid. Pick one of the words, whatever one you want.
Watch:
Barkley continued, pointing out that the Perkins tirade actually made no sense given the paucity of white players who have won the coveted award in recent decades:
…the numbers don’t make sense. … My point is if only five White guys have won MVP in the last 30 years, that makes zero sense — his argument. Zero sense.
Because if that was the case, we’d have a lot more White MVPs. … Wouldn’t the numbers be way, way worse?
Sir Charles also said he was pretty sure the MVP front-runner, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, who is white, doesn’t “give a damn about those idiots talking about him on TV either” because he’s focused on basketball.
But Barkley being Barkley, he was far from done. He next turned his attention to ESPN, and blasted the woke sports network for creating false controversies:
I always talk about ESPN disease. A lot of these guys, when they get on TV and stuff, they’re like, ‘Well, I’m on ESPN, I got to say something provocative.’ And you know the thing about it, you’re always gonna get some fools out there, you guys probably get some fools calling in agreeing with him.
That’s the thing that bothers me at times. I can promise you this, I’ve never said anything on television just to get clicks. That don’t mean I’ve been right or wrong, whatever. But I’ve never said something like, ‘Well, I know people are going to react and go crazy, let me say this.
Charles Barkley blasts Kendrick Perkins and says he “crossed the line”
“I can promise you this, I’ve never said anything on television just to get clicks…We can talk about race as much as you want to as long as you’re going to be fair and honest. But to slander this man… https://t.co/YzndhR9irt pic.twitter.com/BeLpIioric
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 7, 2023
As I said, Barkley’s outspoken, and often hysterical, but he’s also capable of nuance and reflection. Here he has some important thoughts on race and sports:
And this is what bothers me also. Man, race is such a touchy subject because very few people have a pure heart. We can talk about race as much as you want to as long as you’re going to be fair and honest. But to slander this man (Jokic) in this situation is just total BS.
I used to listen to the local ESPN affiliate on the radio when driving around, but over time it became a tedious chore as I sat through leftist talking points waiting for the hosts to actually announce a score. Meanwhile, it’s become all too common these days for people to just casually throw out the racism accusation without evidence.
Cheers to Charles Barkley for calling it out.
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