Former NBA star Charles Barkley made himself laugh and drew an unsurprisingly subdued response from his fellow hosts when, during a recent broadcast of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” he made a joke about the idiocy of the average voter and the president.
Speaking about whether fans should be allowed to vote for who will be on All Star teams, Barkley said “We let the fans vote. Look what happened last time they got to vote for president.” Watch that here:
Charles Barkley: "We let the fans vote. Look what happened last time they got to vote for president." 😅pic.twitter.com/cEIFy2fgyK
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 27, 2023
In any case, Barkley’s seemingly anti-Biden comment drew a muted, awkward response from his co-host, Adam Lefkoe, who wasn’t quite sure what to say.
Chuckling awkwardly to himself, Lefkoe said “alright” and, a few chuckles later, “hey now.” He then tried to get on track with what he was saying, talking about the upcoming game and saying “Uh. Mavs/Suns is going to be our late game tonight. It’s going to be Luka against Charles’ Suns. The Suns are on a four…”
But then both Barkley and Shaquel O’Neill started laughing to themselves and Lefkoe had to stop again, saying “Man, you’re really giving it to me tonight.”
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Unfortunately, Barkley then clarified his remark and said he was referring not to the most recent presidential election, where voters chose Joe Biden, but rather the one before, where they chose Trump. Making that point, Barkley said “I don’t mean the old guy, I mean the guy before the old guy. Sorry, President Biden…”
However, given the amount of time before he “clarified” that, some thought he really meant Biden and was just trying to cover his tracks for fear of getting canceled by the left. One person on Twitter, commenting on the above video, for example, said “Chuck had to lie because Chuck knows society today can’t handle a joke and is afraid of getting cancelled lol.”
Adding credence to the idea that Barkley isn’t pro-Biden but just wanted to cover his tracks is what he said about TNT in 2021. Then he said that he would be leaving “Inside the NBA” because it has gotten too woke and the show’s leadership is acting like the fun police, as the Washington Examiner reported, saying:
“But now, it appears producers of the Emmy-winning show have pushed the woke agenda too far.
‘“That’s all we ever talk about behind the scenes, like, ‘Yo, man, be careful going in this direction.’ I’m, like, ‘Yo, man, we can’t even have fun anymore,’” Barkley told Washington, D.C., radio station 106.7 the Fan. “We’ve had fun all these years, and now, all of a sudden, in the last year-and-a-half, everybody is trying to get everybody fired, and it really sucks.”
“The Hall of Famer says he wants to enjoy life without the show.”
So, perhaps Barkley really did mean Trump, perhaps he was mocking those who voted for Biden, or perhaps he was mocking everybody. Either way, the way that Lefkoe had trouble responding when Barkley made the comment was quite funny.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1