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Charles Barkley recently went off-script during an interview and asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about the rise in domestic violence cases in the league.
On October 25, the NBA held its opening night for the 2023-2024 season, and of course, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was on hand.
Charles Barkley was also on hand to report for TNT and had a few moments to speak with Silver during an interview. In a serious moment that seemed off-script, the retiree addressed the alarming trend and rise in domestic violence cases within the league directly to the commissioner’s face.
He also left the floor open for Silver to address how the NBA was going to respond.
“There’s been a couple disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now, what we doing to address that?” Barkley asked per The Athletic.
“Because you can’t put your hands on women, man. And we should be on the forefront in sports. … So what are we as a league doing to do about that?”
The Commissioner seemed very caught off guard but pushed back on being in competition to lead on the issue. He ultimately gave a very vague answer that felt like high-level PR training paying off in real-time by passing the buck to the Players Association which created the program to handle domestic violence issues.
“So, we’re addressing it,” he said. “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.”
The Athletic has since confirmed that Barkley’s question was not preplanned and was indeed off the cuff.
You can watch the preseason interview with Commissioner Adam Silver below.
