Charles Barkley apologizes to Draymond Green for his fighting words
By Ian Levy
Charles Barkley created a stir on last night’s Inside the NBA broadcast when he said he’d like to punch Draymond Green. On tonight’s broadcast he apologized for his fighting words.
As the Warriors were taking apart the Pelicans in Game 2, and tempers were flaring on the court, Charles Barkley got a little careless with his choice of words on the Inside the NBA broadcast. Watching a clip of Rajon Rondo and Draymond Green jawing at each other, Barkley said that he’d like to punch Green.
The comment was obviously an attempt to point out how obnoxious Barkley found Green, but the choice of words was unfortunate. When Green heard about the comments post game, he strongly encouraged Barkley to go ahead and punch him next time the two see each other, or, in lieu of fisticuffs, to shut his damn mouth.
The back-and-forth was the focus of the blog boys for most of the morning and Barkley used Inside the NBA’s pregame segment for tonight’s Game 2 between the Rockets and Jazz to apologize for his statement.
Barkley: "... Draymond is a hell of a player. He's an irritant. He annoys me at times, but he's a hell of a player, and I apologize." Also says Derrick Stafford, Jason Whitlock and Michael Wilbon all called him Wednesday and said he should apologize.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 3, 2018
Barkley also apologized to Green’s mother, who apparently tweeted at Charles after his fighting words last night.
Charles Barkley apologizes to Draymond Green and his mother for saying he would punch Draymond in the face..."What I said was inappropriate" pic.twitter.com/pXuOaReqg5
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) May 3, 2018
Barkley’s broadcast colleagues wrapped around him, making fun of his snafu (Shaq), agreeing that it was a dumb thing to say (Kenny) and pointing out that Green might have taken it differently if he had seen it in the context it was presented during the broadcast (EJ). Hopefully, this is the last of this story and we can get back to actual basketball.
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Green and the Warriors travel to New Orleans on Friday night for Game 3 against the Pelicans. Green has been fantastic in the first two games of the series, averaging 18.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 11.5 assists per game, in addition to 2.0 steals, 2.0 blocks and a 42.9 3-point percentage.