Charles Barkley Says 20 Percent of Fans Should Be Shot
Charles Barkley is famous for his all-star play in his NBA career, famous for his current role as an analyst with TNT's inside the NBA, and infamous for the attention grabbing things he says. Now, Barkley is making headlines for yet another comment, this time an aggressive reaction to overzealous, negative fans.
Yesterday, Sir Charles was interviewed on the Premiere Radio Networks program "The Jim Rome Show." According to CBSspots.com, Rome and Barkley discussed fan behavior, and the Round Mound of Rebound told Rome, "Fans man. They love their team and their player. They don't want to hear any criticisms. They just want you to be 100 percent for their team period. I think it's only a small fraction. I think 80 percent are great. Twenty percent, I wish you could take them out back and just shoot them."
Attempting to give Barkley a way to mellow out his inflammatory comment, Rome responded by saying, "Well, maybe not shoot them, Chuck."
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But Charles Barkley did not want to back down in the slightest. He corrected Rome, saying, "No, I meant that Jim. 80 percent of the fans are fantastic. But 20 percent of them are so mean-spirited and say the most nasty things to you, because they know you can't grab them."
Sir Charles has been critical of fans in the past, but perhaps not so aggressively critical. Last summer he spoke ill of Miami Heat fans in particular. He told The Huffington Post that the Heat "Have the worst fans. No question. It's not even loud in [the Miami Heat Stadium]. You're at the game and you are like, 'Man this place isn't even loud.'"
His comments did not sit well with Heat fans who, during last season's Eastern Conference finals, stood outside the "Inside the NBA" set and chanted "Barkley Sucks!" When cameras stopped rolling, Barkley gave fans the finger, according to The Huffington Post.
Although his comments on "The Jim Rome Show" were quite fiery, chances are that NBA fans are getting used to Barkley speaking his mind, and his comments won't be held with too much weight, or make too big of a dent in his reputation.
