“Fat Dude Upstairs”: Charles Barkley Insults Inside The NBA Producer On National TV For Constantly Speaking In His Ear

Charles Barkley has been on television for well over two decades. The NBA legend not only knows how to dissect basketball better than anyone, but also knows how to provide fans with some entertaining takes, particularly on his flagship program, NBA on TNT. That said, Chuck can lose his temper on a moment’s notice, especially when producers are screaming into his ear. An example of this happened on today’s NBA on TNT coverage of the ongoing playoffs.

A quality of Barkley that many NBA fans love is his brutal honesty and willingness to always say what’s on his mind. This is why he’s made such a good duo with Shaquille O’Neal, who similarly will not sugarcoat any of his basketball takes. It’s not like Chuck doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He was an 11-time All-Star in his playing days, as well as being named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1993. Dude knows ball.

So it was glaringly obvious that Barkley was a little off his game tonight on the NBA on TNT broadcast. He kept stopping short, or cutting off his thoughts before they were done. Ernie Johnson, who knows Barkley very well due to their Steam Room podcast, brought this up.

“You’ve been doing a lot of jamming on the breaks today,” he said. “What’s going on? There’s no rush.” It didn’t take long for Chuck to reveal that he was quite pissed at the producers.

“You got the dummies talkin’ in my damn ear,” Chuck barked. When Ernie asked who in particular was annoying him, the now 62-year-old analyst went for the jugular. “The fat dude upstairs — and I don’t mean God. I mean TK,” he stated, now with a devious smile.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1917001851037262151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

His answer got a laugh from the group, but left Ernie once again having to pick up after his mess. “I’m just gonna pretend you didn’t say that.”

This wasn’t the first time that the NBA legend aired his grievances with the TNT producers. In fact, this was probably pretty tame compared to how Chuck felt about the network after their ESPN dealings.

Barkley didn’t hold back on “unprofessional” TNT acted during the media rights negotiations

If you didn’t know, the NBA on TNT will be moving to ESPN starting next season. This is because the league did not renew its agreement with Warner Bros Media. Barkley doesn’t seem too distraught about that, though, especially after TNT didn’t communicate a bunch of facts to the crew. He aired these issues during a recent chat with Sports Illustrated.

“I learned from people at ESPN that we had been traded to ESPN,” the NBA legend revealed. “TNT did not even have the common courtesy that we were going to work for ESPN. How unprofessional is that?”

Watching Chuck just have zero care about whether he insults his boss now is not only entertaining, but seems to serve the network right. It’s the classic case of “f**k around and find out.”

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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