Charles Barkley’s appeal is distinct, but easy to understand. Even when he’s wrong, he’s funny. Even when he’s completely uninformed, he’s compelling. Even when he’s the crotchety old man railing against the modern NBA style of play or soft players, at least he has the guts to say it, blowback be damned.
Barkley’s eagerness to go where few former stars are willing to go — regardless of whose feelings he might hurt — has made him a one-of-a-kind star on the NBA’s most important show. The moment he walks away from TNT’s pregame and halftime broadcasts — and the 59-year-old has threatened many times before that he wants to retire at 60 — it’s not an understatement to say the entire universe of basketball discourse will feel different.
That’s the kind of influence Barkley has. And if he leaves that all behind to go work for the controversial, Saudi-backed LIV Golf, a possibility he has now acknowledged in an interview with the New York Post, it will only be for one reason: Because he knows he’s not supposed to.
At this stage of Barkley’s life and career, he’s got it pretty good. He reportedly makes about $10 million a year from TNT, a job that requires little more of him than going into a studio a couple of times a week during the NBA season and being Charles Barkley. He gets to dabble in college basketball during the NCAA Tournament, and he is in demand for whatever other opportunities pique his interest, whether it’s speaking, charity work or playing golf very poorly in public, something he has done on numerous occasions.
Why would Barkley give up all of that for LIV, a possibility that is serious enough for him to discuss it over dinner recently with Greg Norman? Maybe it’s money, though it’s hard to imagine anything the Saudis offer will change his life financially at this point. It’s certainly not the platform, which isn’t and never will be as significant as what he has on “Inside the NBA.” And it’s not because it will do much for his public image. If anything, Barkley — whose Q-rating is probably closer to 100 percent than any other person in sports broadcasting — would become as divisive as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and the scores of others who have gone to work for Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing operations.
But maybe that disapproval is precisely what Barkley is chasing. After all, as Barkley once wrote in his autobiography: “I don’t create controversies. They’re there long…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golfweek…