Former star basketball player Charles Barkley will likely not be present at this year’s NBA All-Star game if North Carolina doesn’t do away with their bathroom law that apparently discriminates against the transgender community.
Barkley appeared in an interview on the Dan Patrick show recently to talk about his admiration of Muhammad Ali, and what he had learned from the legendary boxer.
“I’ve been trying to get the NBA to move the All-Star game out of Charlotte because of the transgender thing. And you know it’s up to me — all these guys talk about money and championships,” Barkley said. “I think man it would be great to win a championship and it’d be great to have money but when you’re rich and famous — especially if you’re black — I feel like I have an obligation to talk about the state of education in this country, sending all these black kids to poor high schools and not making them successful and things like that. I’m going to use my pulpit to try to help poor people.”
Patrick asked Barkley point-blank if he would boycott the All-Star event.
“Yes,” Barkley said, sticking to what he stated in April. “I told my boss, I don’t want to act like I’m jumping on a sword, but I’ve talked to (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver, we need to move the All-Star Game … I hope they don’t put me in a situation where I have to boycott the All-Star Game, we need to move the All-Star Game.”
Commissioner Adam Silver has also made it clear that the law must change if North Carolina wants the game to remain in their state. If the NBA does relocate the game, it will join numerous others such as Bruce Springsteen to shun the state for its stance on the law.
See Barkley’s interview in full below:
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
