On last night’s episode of Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley grilled NBA commissioner Adam Silver about the NBA’s handling of domestic violence cases involving NBA players.
Barkley’s questioning came in the wake of recent domestic violence arrests involving NBA players Miles Bridges and Kevin Porter Jr.
Barkley went off script and began by asking Silver what the NBA was doing to address the issue of domestic violence.
“I got a serious question for you. There’s a couple 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, man. … What are we, as a league, going to do about that?”
Silver, seemingly unprepared for such heavy question, responded that the NBA had a number of programs in place to help players and their families, but Barkley pressed him further.
“But what are we as a league gonna do about that?” Barkley asked. “We need to be at the forefront of this issue.”
Silver appeared to be caught off guard by Barkley’s question, and he struggled to articulate a clear answer. He eventually said that the NBA was working to develop a new policy on domestic violence, but he didn’t offer any specific details.
Barkley’s questioning of Silver was a rare moment of seriousness on Inside the NBA, and it showed that Barkley is passionate about the issue of domestic violence. Barkley’s willingness to speak out on this issue is important, and it will hopefully help to raise awareness of the problem.
The Athletic later confirmed with a television source onsite in Denver that Barkley indeed went off-script and that his question came spontaneously and was not scripted.
Barkley’s questioning of Silver is a sign that the NBA needs to do more to address the issue of domestic violence. The NBA has a number of programs in place to help players and their families, but more needs to be done to prevent domestic violence from happening in the first place.
The NBA also needs to be more transparent about how it handles domestic violence cases involving NBA players. The NBA’s current policy on domestic violence is vague, and it doesn’t offer clear guidance on how the league will discipline players who are accused of domestic violence.
“If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous” does not exactly match what the consequences have actually been. https://t.co/W8lr7DpUvh
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) October 24, 2023
