Never to back away from controversy, NBA commentator Charles Barkley has said that he supports golfers who want to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series.
“I understand why some of the guys are going,” he said. “They’re independent contractors. I don’t judge them for taking that money, especially some of the numbers they’re throwing around. Come on, you can’t turn that money down.”
Barkley continued to say that although he supports the United States, this country needs to be honest about the issues that have taken place here in this country’s history while we criticize other countries over human rights violations.
“I’ll never talk bad about the United States of America,” he said. “It’s the greatest place in the world, but we got issues here, too. Everybody wants to talk about human rights violations and things like that. None of us have clean hands. We’ve all got (stuff) going on in our countries. We do a lot of business in Saudi Arabia. We do a lot of business in China. None of us have clean hands. I try not to ever play judge and jury. If those guys want to go pay their bills and work less. I got no problem with it.”
However, Barkley did come down hard on friend Phil Mickelson. Barkley thinks Lefty should have come out of hiding earlier and not just released a statement but given a press conference before joining the LIV Golf series.
Phil Mickelson wearing all black for the first LIV Tour event.
Weapon. pic.twitter.com/xtuE463lSS
— Football (@BostonConnr) June 9, 2022
“I told him he needs to let somebody see your face, apologize and then get on with your life. The people that are going to forgive you are going to forgive you and the people that ain’t going to forgive you, ain’t going to forgive you.”
Mickelson would say this week at a press conference he doesn’t condone the human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.
{SI.com}
