There have been a number of incidents in the NBA this season in which fans got into it with players. The latest took place during Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals series between the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks on Sunday. Charles Barkley has a suggestion for how similar situations should be handled going forward.
Paul sent a tweet after Phoenix’s loss implying that fans got physical with his family during the game. A report later confirmed that some Dallas fans put their hands on Paul’s mother and wife and that the star point guard’s children witnessed it. Barkley spoke about the incident during TNT’s “Inside the NBA.” He proposed allowing players to fight fans who do stuff like that.
Charles Barkley offered a solution to when a fan at a game can’t control themselves. pic.twitter.com/DEw45eV7Kj
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) May 9, 2022
“I’ve always said we could put an end to all this stuff. Some of this stuff these fans say, let’s take it right down to center court for five minutes,” Barkley said. “I’ve always said that. Some of the crap they’ve said to you — just give me five minutes at center court with them and say, ‘You ain’t gonna press no charges, ain’t nobody gonna be sued civilly. Say what you just said to me right here to my face for these five minutes. I’m gonna beat your a– and beat the hell out of you.'”
Barkley has flip-flopped on the issue of players getting into it with fans. While Sunday’s incident was different in that fans got physical with a player’s family, the comments from Barkley were inconsistent with what he said about Kyrie Irving recently.
Both Barkley and Shaq went off on Irving during the first round of the playoffs for the way he acted toward Boston Celtics fans who were heckling him. Barkley criticized today’s players for “whining” too much about fan behavior. He must feel that players should ignore fans during the game but that it would be nice to be able to whoop on them later.
