Charles Barkley has always been an incredibly outspoken man. His takes regarding the game of basketball and also life outside of the sport have stirred up numerous controversies. As a retired man in his 60s, Chuck doesn’t do much else other than talk. However, in his youth, he’s done more than just talk as he ‘indulged’ in some despicable activities like the time he spat on a little girl in the crowd of an NBA game. Ironically, just 26 days before this incident, he would talk about the double standards in perception that are placed on him versus guys like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
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The incident in question took place on March 26th, 1991 when the Philadelphia 76ers took on the New Jersey Nets. According to reports from that night, a Nets fan in the stands had been berating him with insults all night long and after Chuck had had enough, he spat in the fan’s direction in the 4th quarter.
Unfortunately for him, he would miss his initial target and would end up spitting on a little girl. This immediately led to a nationwide controversy and rightfully so.
Charles Barkley ‘called out’ Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson
What makes this situation regarding him spitting on a little girl worse is the fact that he went on a rant about ‘good guys and bad guys’ in the NBA less than a month prior. Charles Barkley was tough on his Sixers as he wanted them to play better but claimed only he received flack for being tough on his guys while people like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson weren’t criticized.
“All I know is there’s a double standard. If Michael or Magic gets on somebody during a game, people say, ‘Oh, look at the leadership he’s showing.’ If I do it, it’s, ‘There’s Charles being immature again.’ I’m not trying to be outrageous. But you’ve got to have controversial figures in sports. You got to have them,” said Chuck according to ‘The Washington Post’ on February 27th, 1991.
Unfortunately for Chuck, he would become one of the most controversial figures in all of sports less than a month later. He went on to apologize and paid a heft $10,000 fine for his actions following that moment involving the girl.
MJ was criticized unlike what Chuck said
Charles seems to have had the wrong impression when it comes to guys in the league who were protected for being harsh leaders. While he thought it was only him being scrutinized by the media, it was MJ who would get a brunt of the criticism over the decades.
The icing on top of the cake was the fact that one of the greatest selling sports books of all time, ‘Jordan Rules’ by Sam Smith, was a book dedicated to ‘exposing’ Jordan for being a maniacal leader. So Charles Barkley thinking he was being singled out wasn’t close to what was actually going on at the time.
