Contrite and at one point emotional, Charles Barkley made his return to TNT on Thursday night, making this statement during TNT NBA Tip-Off (video on Awful Announcing).
Charles Barkley: “I’m glad to be back. And let me start by saying something. Clearly everybody knows I got a DUI. That’s unacceptable — that is 100 percent my fault. I let my family down clearly, I let TNT down clearly, I let T-Mobile down clearly. But also I let the NBA family down. You know, David Stern, who I think is the greatest commissioner in sports… All I can say is that will never happen again, and I’m sorry. That’s all I can say. It’s been interesting sitting back, listening to all these people tell me this, and this, and this, and this, and listening to what everybody’s got to say. I screwed up. I made a mistake. I’m sorry, and I apologize. And I don’t really know what anybody else wants me to do other than that.
Ernie Johnson: “And Chuck, you and I talked, and the transcript of our conversation is on NBA.com if you want to check that out. And, I don’t know, I know Kenny has something he’d like to say to you. I just, when you look at something like this, the thing that I would hope, Chuck, is that something positive happens out of a negative situation. What do you — what positive can come out of this negative?
Barkley: Well, I will never get behind the wheel when I’ve been drinking. And what I tell other people — first of all every person who’s drunk thinks they’re alright to drive. I challenge everybody out there to really — first of all, I could be a hypocrite and tell you all I hope nobody drinks and drives, but clearly that’s unrealistic. But I want everybody to really seriously think about — seriously think about — if I’ve had, if you’ve had a glass of wine, or a beer, that’s different. But if you’ve had something to drink, seriously think about — clearly you can kill somebody else or you can kill yourself. And drinking and driving, a DUI, that is — I embarrassed everybody in my life, and that’s not cool at all. I am sorry and I apologize. But I hope that somebody else out there thinks about that before they get behind the wheel.
Kenny Smith: I’m glad to hear you say that. I think this is a great opportunity for you to let people know that. But I do have an interesting question. What did you learn, other than don’t drink and drive, about your friends, other people, during this time?
Barkley: Thank you. [long pause] When you’re famous, and we’re clearly — you’re on television — you are really in the limelight. And I never need friends when things are going good. But I got so many phone calls — I touched on some of those in our conversation, whether it was Dick Ebersol, Jeff Behnke who works here, Tony Kornheiser, who’s — I love Tony — Mike Wilbon on Pardon the Interruption. Larry Bird called me. I like Larry Bird, I respect Larry Bird, I admire Larry Bird, but when you get a call from Larry Bird and he says ‘Hey man, I just called to make sure you’re alright, hang in there’, and you called me a lot, Reggie Miller and Doug Collins — Reggie Miller is a great friend of mine. Doug Collins — I love Doug Collins, I respect Doug Collins — but Doug Collins probably called me five times in my whole life. He’s called me five times in the last two weeks, just to say hang in there, we miss you, hurry back. Man, I learned — Joey Crawford called me, Herb Sendek called me, Adam Silver at the NBA. I got a website I don’t even work. And people like — complete strangers, walking up to me. I learned that there a lot of more good people than bad people out there. First of all, 100% my fault, no blame to anybody, 100% my fault. But I always tell people — for complete strangers or people I’ve met in my life to take the time — like, this doesn’t have any effect on their life — Dick Ebersol is one of the most powerful men in television — for him to take the time to call me and say, hey you screwed up, hang in there, that’s it. Quinn Buckner — that is the greatest thing about the whole thing.
Smith: So you learned a lot — that you had more friends than you actually thought.
Barkley: I did. I learned I got, like I say, I learned never to get behind the wheel when I’ve been drinking. But man, I’m like, ’cause sometimes, Kenny, you know, we’ve been in this thing a long time. It’s a lot of people out there who aren’t cool. But I-I really want to thank every person who took the time to just walk up to me and just say hey, hang in there, you messed up, hang in there. So that is the greatest thing out of this, to be honest with you.
Johnson: We care about you Chuck, you know that.
Barkley: And Ernie, I got to tell you something. And this might get me in trouble. And I’m gonna say this. I have never — I gotta be careful how I word this.
Johnson: Do you want to go there now?
Barkley: I do want to go there. I do want to go there. Because I don’t do PR people, I speak from my heart. I never 100% trusted — other than Michael Doyle, Tim Kiely, Tara August and Jeff Pomeroy and you guys, and the crew, they’ve been great to me. But as far as the big wigs at TNT, I’ve never trusted them 110%. I love working here, I love working with you guys, I love working with these guys, but the big wigs at TNT, I’ve never trusted them 110%. And they have proven to me that not only they like what we do on the air, but I think they are my friends. And I think it’s important that I say that. Because, like I say, I’ve been here for eight years, but you know, we don’t spend a lot of time together. They come in every now and then and say hello, and congratulate us when we win awards. But I’ve never trusted them 110%. And I want to tell them that it meant a great deal for them to stay behind me during my screw up. Period.
