Before Charles Barkley became the biggest smack-talking TV analyst, he was one of the best players to play the game.
He ran through everyone (literally) and not a single defender was able to stop him.
In the late 80s and early 90s, he averaged 25.5 points on 57 percent shooting, 12 rebounds and 4 assists.
People hated how talented he was because not only was he unstoppable, but he would mumble some jumble after every bucket to irk the opponents and their fans.
But apparently, there was a way to get back at Barkley and his loud mouth while slowing him down.
On the All The Smoke podcast, Tommy Chong told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that there was a way to get under Sir Charles’ skin, but it had to be done properly or else it wouldn’t work.
Chong said that if you heckled him in your normal voice, Barkley, who had extraordinary hearing, could lose his cool.
“One time, I had friends that had seats at the Clippers… and I had seats ringside and Charles Barkley was the other guy and I saw that Barkley can be affected if you heckled him. But you gotta heckle him properly. And the way to heckle him, especially if you’re ringside, [is] talk in your normal voice ‘cause he can hear everything.
“And so I’m sitting there, and I say, ‘Watch Barkley. Watch him. He’s a ball hog. He won’t pass it until it’s too late. Watch.’ Next thing you know, he passes the ball when it was too late. And then Barkley got so pissed. And I’d do it in a way where I wouldn’t be looking at him. I’d be looking somewhere else. And so Barkley didn’t know where it was coming from. And then he came over to the guy next to me [and yelled], ‘I’d f—k your mama! I’d f—k your wife!’ As soon as he went away, the guy was looking up at him like this.”
I’m not sure which game this was, but it would be pretty damn funny to see some clips from it.
Just imagine it: Barkley berating some poor random guy who didn’t do anything as Tommy Chong is laughing his high ass off.
Oh, my.
Also, who do you think this tactic would work best against today?
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