Charles Barkley is an entertainer. TNT may call him an analyst, but what is his job? Boil it down to the base level.
Barkley’s job is to keep you engaged and coming back for more. That is the job for all of us that work in sports media. It’s no different than a game show host or a singer. This is all show business.
Like so many other entertainers, Barkley hates bad reviews. It doesn’t matter how many people heard or saw what was said about him. The fact that it was said at all is intolerable. That attitude was on display Friday when Barkley sat down with Clay Travis at Donald Trump’s golf club in New Jersey to talk about his flirtations with LIV Golf.
“Some of this LIV stuff has really pissed me off, to be honest with you,” Barkley said. “People use a word like ‘sportswashing,’ ‘blood money,’ and that really pisses me off. These guys have the right to make money any way they want to.”
Charles Barkley is smart. He knows there is no win for him in complaining about how hard it would be to go from making $20 million per year to $60 or $70 million. Instead, he makes it about the larger group.
But make no mistake. Charles Barkley is pissed off. He is wounded. It isn’t just about the money. It’s about the threat to his station in this business as one of the sports media’s most beloved figures.
I’m not going to write that the guy should “shut up and dribble.” That is the mantra of people you do not have to take seriously.
I am going to say that it isn’t our job to foster an environment of amorality or apathy that allows Barkley or anybody else to get into business with the same people that financed the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 without anyone raising an eyebrow.
Now let’s be clear. Not a lot that Charles Barkley said was wrong. He made some very valid points in his conversation with Travis.
Saudi money is everywhere. It is in movies and real estate. It is in some of America’s bigger corporations. Chinese money is something that literally every big business in any industry (sports included, although for some reason we only focus on the NBA) is chasing.
Pointing those things out isn’t some kind of checkmate in the arguments coming Barkley’s way.
I am one of the millions that genuinely like Charles Barkley on TNT. He is fun and insightful in his commentary. He is willing to be foolish and willing to call out the fools when warranted. He is an exceptional entertainer.
But being an entertainer comes with peril. The love of adulation can start making you think you are a lot smarter or more insightful than you really are.
This is not a shot at Barkley. I truly do not think the guy is stupid.
I think he is self-absorbed, and I’m okay with that. Every great talent is. That belief that your opinion is the only one that matters can be the driving force behind cracking a mic or staring down the barrel of a camera each day.
The questions and criticisms the guy is facing right now are fair though.
Charles Barkley’s “if your gay or transgender, I love you” speech went viral earlier this month. It was hardly the first time he has expressed acceptance and even genuine admiration for the LGBTQ community.
So if he had reached a deal with LIV Golf, when was he planning to tell his new employer, the Saudi government, one of the most aggressively anti-LGBTQ countries on the planet “F*** you!” the way he said he would in that video?
That same weekend, while he was in Lake Tahoe, Barkley was touting the need for firefighters to have better equipment. He has been outspoken in his support for police, even in the face of serious backlash.
Isn’t flirting with doing business with the regime that financed the 9/11 attack sort of a big “f*** you” to those men and women?
It’s not lost on me or anyone else that capitalism forces life to become a series of moral calculations. How much hypocrisy is okay? What amount of your money going to truly awful shit are you willing to accept? There is no easy answer.
Honestly, watching golf is just something I am never going to do. It is like watching other people play video games. It’s dumb. Whatever decision Charles Barkley and LIV Golf came to would not have effected my life at all. I am neither relieved he isn’t going to be part of the tour nor disappointed that he isn’t.
I am just getting sick of people presenting non-arguments and what-aboutisms as if they are a shield from valid criticism. There is nothing philosophical about Barkley’s backlash to the backlash. He is addicted to the adulation and is lashing out at criticism. That doesn’t make him a bad guy, but it doesn’t make him unimpeachable either.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
