Charles Barkley ended his playing career with the Houston Rockets, and the Hall of Famer has been nothing but critical of his former team in recent years. Perhaps Sir Charles realizes he has gone too far.
During TNT’s “Inside the NBA” broadcast on Tuesday, Barkley took a moment to apologize to the Rockets’ front office for some things he has said over the past year.
“I want to apologize to the Houston Rockets,” Barkley said, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “I overacted to two tweets. I said something I shouldn’t say. So I want to apologize to (GM) Daryl Morey. And I want to apologize to Tad Brown, the CEO, for overreacting. I want to apologize to (team owner) Les Alexander.
“You know, I don’t do any social media. When you show stuff or I hear about it, I get mad. So I want to apologize to those three guys and the entire Houston Rockets organization because when you’re on television, it should never be personal. We’re supposed to do our jobs. When Daryl Morey sent a tweet during the season, I got mad. I was 100 percent wrong. When Tad Brown tweeted last week, I was 100 percent wrong.”
Most recently, Barkley called the Rockets “fake tough” and guaranteed they were going to lose Game 3 against the Golden State Warriors despite having a lead at halftime. Houston hung on for the victory, and Brown blasted Barkley on Twitter.
Last February, Barkley ripped Morey in one of his infamous rants against basketball analytics. Morey fired back by essentially calling Barkley a talking head.
The Rockets are trailing the Warriors 3-1 heading into Game 5 Wednesday night. It sounds like Barkley is going to ease up on them win or lose. Although, he did specify that he was not apologizing to the players when colleague Kenny Smith noted that Barkley’s criticisms of the team were warranted.
“I didn’t apologize to the team,” he said.
Sorry, Dwight Howard — you’ll have to wait a while longer for your apology.
