Charles Barkley is on a roll to start the 2019-20 NBA regular season.
Apart from telling Klay Thompson straight up that the Golden State Warriors won’t make it to the playoffs this year, the retired NBA player and current TNT analyst vented his ire to United States Vice President Mike Pence.
Barkley explicitly told Pence to “shut the hell up”, after the latter called out the NBA for its supposed cowardice and hypocrisy in dealing with the Hong Kong-China dispute.
“All American companies do business in China,” Barkley said to begin his lengthy tirade during Inside The NBA segment on Thursday.
Charles Barkley on TNT NBA pregame replying to VP’s comment of China & the NBA “Vice President Pence needs to shut the hell up” pic.twitter.com/dBSSHMHlRd
— WonderousATX (@wonderousATX) October 24, 2019
In a speech in Washington earlier today, Pence accused the league of being a “wholly owned subsidiary” of China’s “authoritarian regime”.
“Some of the NBA’s biggest players and owners, who routinely exercise their freedom to criticize this country, lose their voices when it comes to the freedom and rights of other peoples,” Pence said, as quoted from a report by FOX News.
The politician even targeted sporting goods giant Nike for having majority of its business done in China.
“Nike promotes itself as a so-called ‘social-justice champion,'” Pence added. “But when it comes to Hong Kong, it prefers checking its social conscience at the door.”
The relationship between the NBA and China officials, meanwhile, continue to be on the rocks following the aftermath of Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s now-deleted tweet in support of Hong Kong.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has recently announced that despite the tension between the two sides, the league will not disengage with its biggest Asian market.
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