NBA legend Charles Barkley got a hostile welcome in the Bay Area as the TNT Crew arrived for the All-Star Weekend festivities.
Barkley made the trip to the West Coast despite vowing to boycott the 2024 All-Star Game and steer clear of San Francisco.
The basketball Hall of Famer has long made it clear that he is not a fan of the San Francisco Bay Area or the Golden State Warriors. In January, Barkley went as far as saying he wasn’t going to ‘that rat-infested place out in San Francisco.’
However, against his will, Barkley still reported on duty and is in the Bay with Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith.
To open in the festivities, Barkley and the TNT crew hosted Inside the NBA in front of a live audience on Thursday night. About five minutes in, Barkley began addressing the city’s homelessness, which drew boos from the crowd.
‘I actually like San Francisco, I really do,’ Barkley insisted in a rare attempt at complimenting the city.
Charles Barkley was booed in San Francisco following his previous remarks about the city
‘I mean, obviously, hey listen, we got to do something about the homeless. They need their help. We got to clean it up a little bit.’
As the crowd rained boos on Barkley, Smith, and Johnson quickly pushed back, claiming their colleague
‘I say, ‘Help the homeless,’ and some of these people so stupid they boo,’ Barkley continued, seemingly frustrated by the response.
In his previous rant about San Francisco, Barkley emphasized it is ‘not a beautiful city.’
‘Rats. Cat. Y’all are not gonna make me like San Francisco. No. Nope, nope, nope, nope,’ he continued.
The All-Star Game is set to be held at the Chase Center in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. The arena opened in 2019 to host the Golden State Warriors.
Fog City is not the first town to get ridiculed by Barkley, as he is known for his strong opinions with different towns. Most notably, Barkley has ragged on the city of San Antonio for years on ‘Inside’ – repeatedly making jokes about the women, to the point where it’s become a recurring joke on the broadcast.
Last year, he got in trouble again for poking fun at another Texas city, Galveston, saying their coast had ‘dirty a** water’.
