Charles Barkley Eviscerates ESPN Host for Anti-White NBA Claims: 'Asinine, Silly, and Stupid'
Charles Barkley eviscerated ESPN talking head and former NBA player Kendrick Perkins after the latter implied the league’s MVP award has been given to Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić in consecutive years because he is white.
In response to a pretty clear consensus that Jokić could be deserving of being crowned the NBA’s most valuable individual player for a third year, Perkins used ESPN’s airwaves to promote a racist conspiracy theory: The voters might be motivated by race.
Perkins’ absurd opinion led to a Tuesday morning argument on “First Take” between him and former NBA star JJ Redick, who challenged the assertion.
Clips of the segment have gone viral online.
Barkley weighed in on the controversy Wednesday when he called into Denver’s Altitude Sports Radio, where he shredded Perkins as any one of three not-so-flattering adjectives.
Of course, Barkley opened with some self-deprecating humor about his golf game.
“Hey, man, I’m trying to work on my golf game, and y’all are bringing me on the radio to talk about stupid stuff,” Barkley said.
In regard to Perkins’ comments, he continued, “That’s asinine and silly. Asinine, silly, and stupid. Pick one of the words, whatever one you want.”
“It’s a regular-season award,” Barkley added. “It ain’t who the best player is. It’s who had the best regular season. But every year ESPN gets these fools on the radio and TV, talk about who’s the best player.”
He concluded Jokić’s MVPs are “well-deserved” and slammed ESPN’s “fools” over the “silly” debates they engage in on shows such as “First Take.”
He also pointed out that you could count out how many “white guys” had won the MVP award over the last three decades.
Only three have won it since Larry Bird took it home for three consecutive years in the mid-1980s. Steve Nash won it in 2005 and 2006 while Dirk Nowitzki won it in 2007.
Jokić is the only “white guy” to have done it since, and both awards were after stellar seasons — much like the one he’s having right now. Barkley cited that as evidence Perkins was full of it.
“If that was the case, we’d have a lot more white MVPs. This crossed the line, in my opinion … It’s just total BS,” Barkley said of the race-bating.
After Barkley was asked by Altitude Sports Radio if he even watched the ESPN clip in question, his response was gold.
“I got a life,” the TNT NBA commentator said. “I don’t sit around and watch television.”
Leave it to Barkley to be the voice of reason. His impeccable rationale is probably why he doesn’t work for ESPN.
At least Redick was willing to call Perkins’ race-bating out for what it was.
Uh oh, JJ Redick just went on ESPN and accused them of making up racism narratives. Good for Redick. He’s 100% right here. Kendrick Perkins said last week Jokic is getting the MVP because he’s white. pic.twitter.com/F3VhHPShMo
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 7, 2023
“What we’ve just witnessed is the problem with this show,” Redick said in response to Perkins’ comments on Tuesday. “Where we create narratives that do not exist in reality. The implication, what you are implying, that the white voters that vote on NBA are racist.”
Perkins screamed over Redick and denied ever implying NBA MVP voters are motivated by skin color.
“I stated the facts!” he screamed.
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