After nearly 15 years of one-sided banter from Charles Barkley, the women of San Antonio finally got their chance to clap back—and they did so in hilarious fashion.
During coverage of the 2025 NCAA Final Four in San Antonio, TNT’s Inside the NBA staged a mock version of the popular dating game Pop the Balloon, and Barkley was the unsuspecting contestant. What unfolded was an unrelenting roast session that flipped the script on one of the NBA’s most infamous running jokes.
They made Charles Barkley play pop the balloon with women from San Antonio 😂😂😂
(🎥 @NBAonTNT ) pic.twitter.com/7f1K10EUnq
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 8, 2025
For those unfamiliar, Pop the Balloon is a viral dating game, recently adapted by Netflix, where participants eliminate prospective partners by popping their balloons.
In this case, Barkley entered the room full of San Antonio women with his signature charm—only for every single woman to immediately pop their balloons on sight. The scene erupted with laughter as Kenny Smith, playing host, urged the women to explain their brutally swift rejections.
What followed was a comedic avalanche of barbs aimed squarely at Barkley’s expense. One woman mocked his famously clunky golf swing, another playfully questioned if Shaquille O’Neal was single instead.
Barkley’s fraught relationship with San Antonio women dates back to 2010, when he infamously declared on Inside the NBA that “They ain’t got no skinny women down there,” sparking years of churro jokes and exaggerated commentary about the city’s female population.
While Barkley has long insisted his jabs were playful, they’ve also drawn criticism for their fatphobic undertones. In 2021, the Hall of Famer even claimed TNT executives asked him to retire the bit due to growing backlash. But Barkley being Barkley, the routine didn’t entirely vanish.
This past weekend, Barkley once again took aim during Capital One JamFest in San Antonio. After praising the Spurs and Coach Gregg Popovich, he ended his speech with the now-infamous punchline: “And yes, y’all got some big bi***es here.”
It was a moment that signaled Barkley hadn’t learned much—and this time, the women of San Antonio came prepared with jokes of their own.
The segment, broadcast during the Celtics-Knicks game, quickly went viral. Though Barkley tried to laugh it off, the clear message was that the city had had enough of being the punchline.
While Charles Barkley has long been the court jester of NBA media, the Pop the Balloon roast showed that even the most iconic trash talkers aren’t safe from some well-deserved backlash. If anything, San Antonio’s ladies reminded the world that humor cuts both ways—and that sometimes, revenge is best served with a loud POP.
