Charles Barkley isn’t known to mince words when it comes to basketball or politics. Sure, occasionally his comments aren’t what people want to hear and have caused a few eyebrows to rise, but that’s the magic of Barkley-isms. And it’s surprising that during Thursday night’s NBA postgame coverage on TNT, the former NBA star was asked to promote CNN’s upcoming Republican debate. I guess network executives figured he’d have nothing bad to say about it, considering that he’d once wanted to run for Alabama governor as a Republican.
Well, they were sadly mistaken. They always say a broken clock is right twice a day, and Thursday night was Barkley’s time.
Not only did he slam Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, but he also slammed CNN.
For starters, Barkley went in on Trump and the losers who love him.
“It’s just sad. It really is. I feel bad. Just to insult people. Then you have these losers who love that. They are afraid to look in the mirror and see why their life sucks. Your life sucks because of you, not the Hispanics. It’s just been sad to watch,” Barkley stated regarding Trump and hatred toward Hispanics and Muslims.
But the money shot came when Barkley—who, I remind you, was on TNT, which is owned by the same company that owns CNN—criticized CNN and its coverage of Trump and politics in general.
“I love CNN because they’re a part of our company. But they’ve been kissing butt. Chasing ratings. They’ve become like Fox News. For the Republicans. They follow every single sound bite just to get rating for these debates. And it’s sad that our company has sold their soul for ratings,” Barkley stated so eloquently.
What Barkley stated was much needed, but who knows what backlash he’ll get from company executives, who basically just paid him to bash them (LOL)?