Days removed from the 2022 Oscars ceremony, everyone is still talking about the slap heard around the world. Actor Will Smith walked up on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face after the latter had made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett and her struggle with alopecia. There have been a lot of people going back and forth on the debate, and now Charles Barkley has given his opinion on the situation.
Charles Barkley was a guest on the Dan Patrick show. Patrick asked Barkley about the situation that took place at the Oscars. He noted that while he loves both Chris Rock and Will Smith, he thinks Will was wrong and pointed to his own history of needless violence. Barkley admitted that he was provoked in those situations and reacted in the wrong way and that he should have walked away, just like Smith should have.
“I love Chris Rock. I love Will Smith. Will was 100% wrong let’s just leave it right there… I think I’ve been arrested four or five times for punching people, and I was wrong. It’s alright to admit you were wrong Dan… It was an overreaction. Part of our job is to get heckled and people say stupid stuff to you, but at the time, I was 25-26, and I was an idiot for overreacting. Unless somebody physically comes at you, you grow up. I’m almost 60 years old now. And the stuff you do when you were 25-26 when somebody heckles you, you can’t do it. It goes with the job… Unless they get personal, you turn the other cheek. You have to. 90% of fans are great. 10% are just jacka**es who are just jealous and just mad at you because you’re successful. But you gotta turn the other cheek.”
Charles Barkley is far from the only NBA personality to share their opinion on the issue between Will Smith and Chris Rock. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar admonished Will Smith for slapping Rock, but he was way harsher than Barkley was. Stephen Curry had an immediate reaction to the incident but seemed to carry a very neutral tone when talking about it.
Barkley has had a history of not taking inappropriate comments from fans, and usually took physical action against the person saying these things. But Barkley was made to look like the villain in those situations, with no one paying attention to what was said to him. This was one of the reasons Barkley made the infamous ‘I am not a role model’ campaign with Nike.
