For the last 20 years, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has had a great second career as a brash and opinionated analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
As one would expect, he has ruffled many a feather with comments he has made.
Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant once got so mad at Barkley’s criticism of him that he cussed out the former Auburn University star following a game.
Charles Barkley said he's had 10-20 players, coaches and agents reach out to him after calling them out on Inside The NBA.
The most memorable was Kobe Bryant cussing him out for three hours.
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“The great Kobe Bryant one night, remember that game he wouldn’t shoot in the second half, I called him out after that,” said Barkley. “He shot one time in the second half – he was trying to prove a point [that] he didn’t have any help, and I was livid [about] what he tried to do, and I called him out, and when I got off the air … Kobe started texting me for the next three hours, and we’re going back and forth and he’s calling me every MF and every SOB in the world, and I’m laughing as I get these and I’m like, ‘Yo man, pick up the phone and call me.’”
It appears the game that Barkley alluded to was Game 7 of the first round of the 2006 NBA Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers lost that contest, 121-90, and Bryant took only three shots in the second half.
It seems inconclusive if Bryant, as Barkley claimed, truly refused to shoot the ball in order to highlight the lack of support he had around him at that time.
The Lakers had already trailed 60-45 at halftime, and then-head coach Phil Jackson later publicly supported Bryant, saying that the superstar was simply following his game plan.
Bryant later was a guest on “Inside the NBA” and answered Barkley’s questions about his actions with grace.
