The NBA icon went all out against cancel culture after he was reportedly ordered to stop referring to the weight of women in San Antonio, Texas, in his jokes.
Barkley spoke out angrily about the TNT order while he was a guest on the "Grant & Danny Show" on 106.7 The Fan.
“They are overboard right now! You can't even have fun nowadays without them trying to get you canceled and things like that,” Barkley said during the radio show.
What are the details?
The legendary basketball player has made several jabs at the “big” women of San Antonio, where he used to play often when he was on the Phoenix Suns basketball team. He also called out some of his bosses for not adequately defending the use of jokes.
“They won't even let me talk about San Antonio anymore!” he added.
“You know, when I'm always talking' about them big ol' women of San Antonio? They're like, 'Charles, we got one lady wrote an article.' I'm like first of all, I didn't call anybody personally fat in San Antonio. I was just joking around and when this one lady wrote this article, I'm like, so y'all gonna let this one lady, we've been having fun with this for probably 10, 15 years!” he explained.
The article he referred to was written by Madalyn Mendoza and in it the author calls out the network for letting Barkley keep on “ fat shaming” the women from San Antonio, Texas.
In the interview Barkley also revealed that he intends to work as a sports commentator exclusively for another two years.
“I'm trying to hang on for another couple of years until I'm 60. I'm only working till 60. I've already told them that. I'm not working until the day I die, that's stupid. And, if I don't have enough money by now, I'm an idiot, so they should fire me anyway,” he continued.
Barkley has stirred waves of controversy in the past months too. In 2020 he stood up for the athletes who refused to join the Black Lives Matter protests. Later that year he also mocked the “defund the police” movement, as The Blaze reports.
“I'm like, wait a minute, who are black people supposed to call? Ghostbusters?” he said.
As far as the San Antonio “fat shaming” incident he believes his jokes shouldn’t be judged harshly and since he plans to retire in a few years he’s not particularly worried.