Charles Barkley addressed the elephant in the room during an interview with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. In an unprepared question, Barkley shrugged off a commercial break to ask Silver to address the growing incidents of domestic violence from NBA players.
Charles Barkley: They said go to commercial, but I’ve got a serious question for you. There are a couple of disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now. What are we doing to address that? You can’t put your hands on women and we should be at the forefront in sports when men hit women. So what are we as a league gonna do about that?
Adam Silver: That’s an area where we’re not looking to compete against other leagues when you say forefront. I think all the leagues are trying to address this issue. But I know, again, our players association, credit to them, this wasn’t adversarial. We put in place a new program for how we deal with, first of all, accusations of domestic violence even before they’re prosecuted. Part of it goes to the training of our players. Counseling our players to make sure they understand during high-stress situations obviously never resort to violence against anyone and so we’re addressing it. We have state-of-the-art counseling professionals dealing with our players, but of course, if a guy does cross the line the consequences are enormous.
Charles Barkley confronts NBA commissioner Adam Silver after numerous offseason incidents of domestic violence among NBA athletes: pic.twitter.com/u0LjxLiLRd
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2023
This was incredible from Barkley, who addressed a very important question directly without the Commissioner being prepared for it. The answer was very underwhelming, with Silver not really answering the question and using mental health and educational programs instituted by the NBA as their primary responsibility in dealing with these situations.
We still don’t know if the league will ever address this directly, given the uncomfortably long history of former players and current coaches having similar incidents from decades ago.
Kevin Porter Jr. And Miles Bridges’ Situations Led To The Question
There have been two very high-profile domestic violence incidents in the NBA in the past year. The first came from Miles Bridges, which was revealed during the 2022 offseason after he was accused of domestic violence and child abuse. This led to Bridges’ sitting in free agency and missing out on a $100 million contract from the Hornets, ultimately not being on any roster last season.
However, the charges against Bridges were going nowhere and he was brought back by the Hornets this summer. But, he was struck with more charges after a protective order violation for an incredibly dangerous incident with the mother of children, with the children present in a car and Bridges going on a violent rampage of throwing things that could’ve severely injured the people involved. He is currently awaiting trial for that incident and has been suspended once again by the Hornets, but not waived.
Kevin Porter Jr. is the second high-profile case in the league recently. He faces charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault and could face a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars if convicted on the strangulation charge. His girlfriend, WNBA star Kysre Gondrezick, has since claimed details have been exaggerated, and the case will have to go through the legal rigmarole now.
Porter Jr. was promptly traded by the Rockets to the OKC Thunder, who instantly waived the star and took second-round picks as compensation for the deed. It’s unlikely he plays in the NBA again given his troubling history of anger issues, which also led to his stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers to end.
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