NBA legend Charles Barkley apologized to a female reporter after he told her Tuesday night, “I don’t hit women, but if I did, I’d hit you.”
The reporter, Alexi McCammond, wrote on Twitter that Barkley made the comments in an off-the-record conversation after she asked him which Democratic presidential candidate he supports, NBC News reports.
McCammond, who is covering the 2020 presidential race for Axios, interviewed Barkley in an Atlanta-area bar ahead of Wednesday night’s debate.
The reporter said Barkley originally said he “loves” former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, but after being approached by a campaign staffer for presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, he said he “loved Pete.”
McCammond acknowledged his change of heart, and that is when Barkley made his comments about hitting her, The New York Times reports.
Although the conversation was off-the-record, McCammond said she felt compelled to break the agreement because his comments were not OK, NBC News notes.
There are almost no times I will beak an OTR “agreement” but this is not OK. And it was all because he came in talking about how he loves Deval Patrick and once someone from Pete‘s campaign came around he said he loved Pete and I reminded him he previously said he was a Deval fan
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) November 20, 2019
Barkley, an analyst for “Inside the NBA” on TNT, gave his apology via a statement.
“My comment was inappropriate and unacceptable,” Barkley wrote. “It was an attempted joke that wasn’t funny at all. There’s no excuse for it and I apologize.”
The incident has some people digging into Barkley’s past about his comments related to women and violence, The Washington Post reports.
“This is a game that if you lose, you go home and beat your wife and kids,” Barkley said, according to The New York Times after a game in 1990.
After being asked by a reporter if he wanted to rethink or backtrack his comment, he replied, “Nah. Print it.”
The first serious conversations about domestic abuse in sports were sparked in 1990 by Barkley's comment about beating his wife. A year later, he spat on an eight-year-old girl during a game. A year after that, Nike featured him in the famous "not a role model" ad. https://t.co/xJSbFNKZie
pic.twitter.com/Ahfq6JxL3T— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 20, 2019
Months later, the hall-of-famer reportedly spat on an 8-year-old girl during a game, although he was aiming at a heckler near her, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Barkley, off the court, is famous for a 1993 Nike ad that said “I am not a role model,” The Washington Post notes.
In another situation, Barkley earned praise as well as side-eyes for his comments after he pledged $1 million to help Black women entrepreneurs in Alabama. After his donation, he said the money could not be used for “hair salons and restaurants,” Blavity reports.
