As If It Never Happened

"I want to be clear that when I spoke of really dumb basketball the other night, I was talking about the players. I wasn't talking about their coach. I don't want to be criticizing young white coaches because we need more young white players in the NBA to maintain diversity."

If anyone had said this, he would immediately, and roundly, be branded a "racist". He wouldn't be, of course, because "racism" is the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another, or of one race being inferior to another or all others. However, the speaker clearly would have been racially biased in his words and would have deserved condemnation.

And so,this was a "wait- what?" moment:

Charles Barkley on this comment:

"I got a couple of NBA coaches call me and I want to be crystal clear: when I said it was really dumb basketball the other night, I was talking about the players. I wasn't talking about coach Johnson. I don't want to be criticizing young black… https://t.co/vSvdHclMhX pic.twitter.com/9668GnWQOf

— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 13, 2026

The outcry was.... virtually nonexistent. There were a few individuals on Twitter critical but otherwise, crickets.  And when Yahoo Sports ran a story about the controversy, it pertained to the issue of whether Barkley should have blamed the coach (as he appeared to do initially) or the players (as he did with his clarification).  No one questioned whether a very popular sports personality should be asserting that race plays a dominant role in his commentary.

Charles Barkley should not be fired for this. It is not a capital offense and he should not have been cancelled. But if a white analyst on ESPN (as this was) or on any network had said that he didn't want to be criticizing whites- of whatever generation, for whatever reason- he or she would have been raked over the coals, forced to apoligize, then terminated. A career wiped out in a matter of moments.

What Charles Barkley said was reprehensible. And the virtual complete disregard to this is as reprehensible, and more dangerous.

 

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