As the world explodes over Tom Brokaw’s Alabama joke during Ole Miss’ commencement, Charles Barkley basically did the same thing yesterday on ESPN Radio’s “Russillo and Kanell”, but it drew less attention because well he’s Charles Barkley.
After beginning the discussion about the upcoming Thunder-Warriors series, Steph Curry and his talk with Dwight Howard on TNT, then the chat veered toward’s Danny Kanell’s “dislike” for all things SEC and once you set Chuck on his way, good luck reining him back in again:
“I think that the SEC kind of makes you hate it because the fans are so obnoxious. I can understand why people don’t like the SEC. I think clearly its by far the best football conference in the world and I think Danny [Kanell] will admit that. But I will admit this, the fans are the most obnoxious people. Alabama fans are the worst. Then you factor in Georgia fans — they’re awful — Florida, LSU fans.”
“I think Nick Saban is the greatest coach of all time in my opinion, and when I tell Alabama fans they’re the most obnoxious fans in in the world you know what they say to me? They don’t even say, ‘No we’re not.’ They say, ‘We’re not as bad as those LSU fans.’ They never take the time to say, ‘We’re not the most obnoxious fans.’ They never try to defend themselves. When they say, ‘We’re not nearly as bad as those LSU fans,’ they let you know just how bad they are.”
Chuck wasn’t done, saying that Florida State, Kanell’s alma mater, plays in a “girl conference” with “one hard game a year”. While the ACC isn’t the SEC by any means as evidenced by Wake Forest and Syracuse, I’m sure he’ll draw some ire for how he opted to throw shade at the ACC. That said all of this really falls under Chuck being Chuck and it’s hard to imagine anyone will remember or care about any of these comments given Barkley has immunity over controversial comments.
You can listen to his entire interview here should you wish.
