Charles Barkley tried to help Johnny Manziel hours before nightclub fight
Charles Barkley tried to play mentor for Johnny Manziel, but his efforts quickly proved to be futile.
Barkley told Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic on Wednesday morning that he ran into Manziel in Las Vegas in May while on a break from covering the playoffs for TNT. Manziel wanted to meet Barkley, and the former NBA player took the opportunity to try to talk some sense into the quarterback.
“Johnny comes over and I said ‘Johnny, man you’re screwing up your life, man,'” Barkley said, via Jim Adair of Crossing Broad. “I’m not your dad, I’m not gonna try to lecture you. I’m just telling you I had a brother who passed away at a young age. Drugs and alcohol got him. It’s gonna end like a bad movie.
He said ‘Man I just like to have fun,’ and I said ‘Johnny we all like to have fun, at some point it’s out of control.’ I said ‘don’t screw up your career, and I’m worried about your life.’ My mom, when my brother passed away, I thought she quit living after that happened. I felt bad for her, and I don’t wanna feel bad for your mom and dad if something happens to you man, stop being selfish. He said ‘You know what, I’m gonna try and do better.'”
As we now know, Manziel did not do a very good job of doing better. However, the surprise was just how little time it took for Manziel to make a fool out of Barkley.
“So it’s about two o’clock in the morning,” Barkley said. “I got the plane waiting at the airport cause I got to get to Oklahoma City. So me and my boys stay there for a couple more hours. I’m driving to the airport, and on the radio: Breaking News, Johnny Manziel arrested at a nightclub in Vegas. My friends, they were riding me like ‘Yeah, you’re a good mentor, the guy gets arrested three hours after talking to you.'”
The incident Barkley was speaking of would have happened on the night of May 20. It’s one of those stories that’s funny but not funny at the same time. If Manziel will taunt his own dad, he certainly isn’t going to turn his life around because Charles Barkley told him to – no offense, Chuck, but good on you for trying.
H/T theScore
