There may not be a day in recent history when Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal did not try to get back at one another. The co-hosts of Inside the NBA have an ongoing battle where both try to get under the other’s skin any way they can. And it looks like Shaquille O’Neal has already made his move, going back nearly two decades to share Charles Barkley’s mugshot on social media.
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Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal recently uploaded a mugshot of Charles Barkley from 1997 when the latter had gotten into an altercation and eventually got in trouble with the authorities.
The altercation occurred in Orlando where a man had chucked his drink towards Charles Barkley. The whole ordeal took place at the Phineas Phogg’s bar at Church Street Station according to the Washington Post.
The post states that Jorge Lugo, 20 at the time, threw a glass of ice at him and three other women sitting at Barkley’s table. Following this, Jugo ran up to the front of the bar but was eventually grabbed and thrown against a pane of a glass window.
An off-duty officer tried to intervene in the fight between Charles Barkley and Jorge Lugo. However, Barkley had already picked up Lugo, who was a foot shorter than him and thrown him across the window.
As he lay on the floor bleeding, the police mentioned Barkley telling Lugo, “You got what you deserve. You don’t respect me. I hope you’re hurt.” Lugo was taken to the hospital for a laceration on his right arm.
Barkley was taken into custody and was charged with resisting arrest without violence and aggravated battery. He ended up spending five hours in jail and was released on a $6000 bond. When brought in front of the judge at the trial, Barkley displayed no remorse at all whatsoever. In fact, when asked if he had any regrets, Barkley said, “Yeah, I regret we were on the first floor.”
During the time of the incident, Barkley also went on to say, “I’m going to defend myself…at all times. I’ve made that clear in my years in the NBA.”
Though Barkley ended up getting arrested and brought to trial, the Hall of Famer had no regrets, especially after he got disrespected by another man for an unknown reason. And if it were anyone in Barkley’s position, it is safe to assume that they would’ve probably been annoyed themselves. That said, Barkley’s level of violence was also extensive, to say the least, something he has learned to pull back as the years have rolled by.
Charles Barkley shared his side of the story
Charles Barkley had a well-known history of getting into altercations in bars and nightclubs from time to time. His 1991 arrest where three bodybuilders wanted to fight him has been one of the more talked about fights Barkley was in. He talked about the whole ordeal on The Lowe Post podcast. Barkley mentioned taking his clothes off before trying to fight the three people in front of him.
“I started taking off all of my clothes. I take off my jacket, had a big coat on. I take off my shirt. I take off my shoes and socks.”
And to make himself appear even more unhinged, he supposedly channeled his inner karate kid which did, in fact, scare two of the three assailants. The third one got punched by Barkley and suffered a broken nose.
The NBA legend was charged with two counts of misdemeanor but even after 20 years of the incident, Barkley felt that man ‘deserved to be punched.’ Now, it’ll be interesting to see how Sir Charles responds back to Shaq now that he is on social media as well.
