Charles Barkley making a fool of himself on TNT every Thursday night has helped make the network’s Inside the NBA studio show a must watch destination for NBA fans. Barkley making a fool of himself in real life should make TNT evaluate his status on the network.
Barkley was arrested on suspicion of DUI on Wednesday morning, which was a bad enough PR hit for his employers at Turner. The details of the police report will no doubt make those in Atlanta cringe.
According to the report, Barkley told the arresting officer, “that he ran the stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up the girl I saw get in the passenger seat.” Barkley explained that he was going to “drive around the corner and get a **** ***. He then explained that she had given him a ‘**** ***’ one week earlier and said it was the best one he had ever had in his life.”
Also in the report, officers say they “found a handgun in the vehicle“, which was impounded. It should be pointed out that there was no mention of whether the gun was legal or not.
While all of this may be written off as Charles being Charles, the question becomes how many more brushes with the law TNT can accept before the negative press from having Barkley on the payroll outweighs the positive. Remember, last year Barkley nearly faced felony charges for unpaid gambling debts, and was later forced to confront his gambling problems on the TNT studio show.
Barkley makes a living being controversial and unpredictable. But at a certain point that begins to cross the line to being reckless and irresponsible. If the allegations that Barkley was driving drunk prove true, TNT should at the very least suspend him — the same way NBA players and coaches are suspended for the same infraction.
