Charles Barkley is one of the most honest men on television. Whatever Barkley says, everyone knows is coming straight from the heart because nobody can filter his thoughts. That is a good thing, as Barkley drops gems by being honest about his feelings on situations, especially because he has experiences to draw back on as a player.
A deplorable scene occurred in Dallas during the Mavericks vs. Phoenix Suns game, as a young fan allegedly harassed Chris Paul's mother and put her hands on him, prompting a lot of commotion that resulted in the fan and his parents being thrown out of the AAC.
A lot of people have been very upset at the worsening state of fans interacting with players, and Charles Barkley had a novel solution to put a stop to this. He suggested that players be allowed to settle this with a fight on center court for 5 minutes.
“We can put an end to all this stuff, some of these things these fans say, let’s take it right down to center court for five minutes, I have always said that. Just give me five minutes at center court with them. Ain't no one gonna press charges, ain't no one getting sued civilly, say what you just said to me right here for these five minutes, and I’m gonna beat your ass.”
Obviously, the NBA would never allow this, but we have seen this may be effective. Videos had circulated a month and a half ago of Russell Westbrook getting taunted by a fan who stopped dissing him after being confronted by the former MVP.
It is easy to misbehave when security and the crowd will keep a distance between you and the person you are talking trash to. However, when there is no distance, fans rarely say anything disrespectful to NBA players. Barkley's idea isn't practical because it propagates violence, but goes to reaffirm that people who trash talk are cowards and wouldn't be disrespectful to the face of any player.
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