Charles Barkley recently appeared on the ‘Dan Patrick Show’ and gave fans a greater insight into his erstwhile gambling habits. Barkley was once notorious for his gambling addiction and had also faced severe losses financially. However, over the years, the Philadelphia 76ers legend has grown out of this habit and accepted his shortcomings wholeheartedly in front of his fans and the public. Speaking to Dan Patrick, Sir Charles revealed that he has been caught with the fever of the hype around college basketball over the past few weeks.
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More specifically, Barkley has started watching women’s college basketball, something he had never done before. While touching upon the anticipated matchup between emerging stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, Chuck revealed how he had never gambled on women’s sports. When Patrick asked if he bet on those games, Chuck replied,
“You know, I didn’t bet on those games because I don’t really…I’ve never bet on women’s sports. As much as I am a gambling degenerate, I’ve actually never bet on women’s sports, I gotta tell you that.”
After making this revelation, Chuck ranted about how certain pundits and experts act like a ‘know-it-all’ for every sport, “We’ve got enough idiots and fools on television act like they know everything about every sport.”
In fact, the 1993 NBA MVP admitted that he never watched women’s college basketball until the past three weeks, “I watched more women’s college basketball in the last three weeks than I have all year. So, I don’t want to get on here like some of these fools on other networks who talk about every sport like they are an expert.”
Barkley was highly repulsive of the TV show hosts using the word ‘experts’ to justify their opinions on network shows. He believes their takes are necessarily just opinions, which can vary from person to person.
Furthermore, in his lengthy rant, Chuck also warned active players from ever engaging in activities related to gambling. We can see the long-drawn effects of such involvement quite evidently, given Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter is currently under investigation for game-fixing and being involved with betting. Such activities, as per Barkley, could get players banned for life from the NBA or any of their respective sporting leagues.
Charles Barkley has always been candid about his gambling problems
Charles Barkley has never backed down from facing the notoriety of his gambling addiction. Aside from Michael Jordan, Chuck was one of those players who would heavily gamble in casinos, ever since he started making enough money from the league. However, that has come with significant issues for the veteran star, who has openly spoken about the same on several occasions.
In an appearance on ‘In Depth with Graham Bensinger’, seven years ago, Chuck admitted having lost $1 million or more almost ten to twenty times.
“I probably wanted to five or six times. But I have lost a million somewhere between 10 and 20 [times], I can’t get exact because it’s going back to the ’80s.”
Over the years, Barkley has seemingly improved on his gambling addiction and has become more involved with his role as an analyst in the NBA. However, he never shies away from discussing the issues that almost bankrupted him just a few decades back.
