The presence of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal has made NBA on TNT one of the most loved basketball analysis shows on television. Apart from them constantly trolling each other, the two analysts are always bickering over some petty thing or another. Long before their banter in the studio, Barkley and O’Neal actually locked horns during an NBA game. A heated altercation in 1999 led the two big men to get into a fight, that was aggravated by Chuck throwing the ball at Shaq. The clash led to O’Neal being fined $10,000 and Sir Charles $5,000. 13 years later, during a segment on Inside the NBA, Mike Tyson ended up commenting on the duo’s famous fight. During the review of the altercation, the renowned boxer threatened to kick Barkley’s “a**”.
Advertisement
The 10th November 1999 clash between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers was a pretty chirpy one. At one point early in the contest, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal got into a fight right under the basket. In addition to both players being ejected from the contest, the league penalized the two stars with hefty fines for their rash behavior.
Mike Tyson threatened to beat up Charles Barkley
Back in 2012, Mike Tyson was invited to weigh in on the famous Charles Barkley-Shaquille O’Neal fight from 1999. The former heavyweight Champion of the world didn’t hesitate before taking shots at the two analysts. Firstly, Tyson advised Shaq to not fight, if he didn’t know how to, “Don’t fight if that’s not what you do.”
Later, perhaps for having the audacity to instigate the fight against a 7’1 big man as a 6’5 forward, the legendary boxer went on to threaten Barkley in no uncertain terms.
“By the way, Chuck, I will kick your a** and you know I would, I would kick your a**, I would kick your a**. Kick it.”
As soon as the video ended, the Chuckster looked straight into the camera with a ready response for Tyson. With a fierce look on his face, Barkley first demanded Tyson’s attention, and then said, “Listen here Mike Tyson… you right. You’d kick my a**.”
Take a look at this incident in the following YouTube clip posted by Opto I.
The entire crew burst out in laughter immediately after Chuck’s honest admission. Even though Barkley decided to laugh it off, we know for a fact that Chuck has previously stood up to Tyson and called him out for his wrong-doings.
Chuck confronted Tyson during a party
During an appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, Barkley revealed an anecdote from an old party of his. According to complaints from several guests, Mike Tyson was ‘grabbing their wives in that party by their a**.’ Despite being intimidated by Tyson, Barkley did the right thing and confronted the boxer:
“Let me get this straight. The guy who bit a guy’s ear off, y’all want me to go and confront him? So I walk up to Mike and I say, Hey Mike, there’s only a couple women here who are single. Not that you should be grabbing their a** either. And he’s like ‘Okay Charles, you are right. I’ll stop doing that Charles.”
Considered to be one of the GOATs of boxing, Tyson is not to be tested. However, kudos to Barkley for standing up for the security of his guests.
