Charles Barkley is tired of the “clowns” at ESPN.
Yes, Inside the NBA will be licensed to the Worldwide Leader following the end of the 2024-25 NBA season, but as Barkley tells Dan Patrick, he’s a “straight shooter.” Barkley’s candid interviews on The Dan Patrick Show are known to send “chills” down the spines of TNT Sports executives.
It remains to be seen if that’ll be the case once he’s on ESPN’s airwaves, but he’s already told us he’s uninterested in lending his services to any of the network’s other properties.
In any event, Barkley used his Wednesday interview on Patrick’s show to take some below-the-belt shots at ESPN.
“The Lakers, I told you six weeks ago, the Lakers aren’t a good team,” Barkley quipped. “They got two really, really good players, but they’re not a good team. ESPN just swings on them like everything tastes like chicken, but the Lakers are not a good team. They’re going to lose either this round or the next round, but more likely this round.”
“This is not the Lakers’ year,” Barkley adds. “And people think I hate on the Lakers. I told you. I said, ‘The Lakers aren’t a good team.’ But ESPN just swinging on them like they were damn King Kong.”
Barkley wasn’t done.
“Dan, you know, the clowns at ESPN, they always make me laugh,” he told Patrick. “Dan, you know, I’m going to be a straight shooter. It’s interesting how they were discussing Giannis [Antetokounmpo] this week, like, should Giannis want to leave? I clearly don’t remember when I played, I don’t remember saying, ‘We need to get Charles Barkley some help in Philadelphia, in Phoenix, or Karl Malone in Utah. Patrick Ewing needs some help in New York.’ And I remember the guys in the media kissing my ass and Karl’s ass, and Patrick ass. ‘Well, Giannis should want to leave Milwaukee now, because he can’t win the championship.’ I wonder where all the guys were when I played, asking me to get some help.
“I mean, they were kissing. They were like loving the Lakers, loving the Celtics, loving Michael [Jordan], loving the Pistons. But I don’t remember all these kiss asses back in the day, saying, ‘You know, we need to get Charles Barkley some help, because he can’t win a championship in Philly or Phoenix.’ It makes me laugh. They’re like, ‘Giannis gotta leave Milwaukee.’ You know, that already started. Like, wow. Y’all more concerned about us other great players back in our day, but y’all of a sudden now y’all like, ‘Giannis has got to leave Milwaukee now. Is his championship window closed?’ I’m like, ‘Man, thanks for helping me out when I went out there with nobody.”
Barkley might be joining ESPN in some capacity, but don’t expect him to play by their rules.
His blunt, no-holds-barred approach has always been his trademark, and that won’t change just because he’s on a new network.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.