Ernie Johnson Recalls His Mother Calling Him Shocked Over Charles Barkley’s Wild Takes On National Television

If something outlandish was said on Inside the NBA, there’s a high chance it came from Charles Barkley. He’s had numerous questionable moments on the air over the years, and Ernie Johnson revealed that some of those left viewers, including his mother, appalled.

As the Inside the NBA crew celebrated Mother’s Day, they reminisced about some of their favorite memories with their mothers. Chuck spoke on how his mom and Shaquille O’Neal’s mother formed a steady friendship and would go on trips with each other.

“They would take all these vacations,” Barkley recalled. “And I would get the bill, and I’m like ‘Ma, you do know I don’t make as much money as Shaq, right?’ [And she’d say] ‘But baby, I gotta pay my portion of the trip’! And I [would] say, ‘Why don’t you use your cheque’? [And she’d tell me] ‘Oh, I can’t afford to pay for stuff with my money’!”

As Chuck narrated this heartfelt and mildly humorous story about his mother, Ernie’s tale swerved a wee bit toward the scandalous side. Not that his mother did anything bad, no. Ernie spoke about how she was simply horrified by some of the things Chuck said on TV.

Ernie’s mom, Lois Johnson, was a huge fan of the show. She’d stay up to watch each and every episode, and would even call Ernie the next day to talk about it.

“She’d stay up, she’d watch Inside the NBA come on at 2 o’clock in the morning,” recalled Ernie. “She’d tell me the next morning what it was about. ‘Oh, I can’t believe that Charles said this’ or whatever.”

Now we may never know which of Chuck’s statements would’ve caused her to react this way. But we can be sure Barkley would have provided her with the opportunity to be shocked on ample occasions.

Chuck’s constant beef with the women of San Antonio, his famous feud with the city of Galveston, or his wild criticism of modern NBA players have all made him one of the most outrageous, yet widely loved, TV hosts.

That’s Barkley’s calling card. He’s brutally honest, sometimes to a fault. He won’t mince words and will always give it to you straight.

When Barkley called modern players “wu**ies”

A couple of days ago, Chuck called out the standard of the modern NBA, and some players who feel they are “too good to be coached/.” This came out while he was talking about Anthony Edwards’ poor showing against the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their Conference Semifinals.

“The notion that today’s players are such wu**ies that they can’t get criticized is so crazy to me. Every bad player & every great player should want to get coached. It’s not criticism. It’s coaching… Coach your team. Get on everybody’s a**,” he said.

Chuck went on to praise Chris Finch, since the Minnesota Timberwolves head coach had also called Edwards out for his poor performance. Chuck stuck to his guns when claiming that players in the NBA are so afraid of being criticized that they’re unable to recognize the difference between genuine suggestions and criticism just for the sake of it.