Charles Barkley blasts San Francisco at All-Star Game, saying it's full of 'homeless crooks'
MIAMI, FLORIDA - MAY 21: Charles Barkley looks on prior to game three of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat at Kaseya Center on May 21, 2023 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees
SAN FRANCISCO - NBA legend Charles Barkley ripped into San Francisco Sunday night during a broadcast – not his first time trashing The City.
Barkley was speaking with polarizing Warriors forward Draymond Green and ex-Pacers star Reggie Miller, now an NBA analyst as well, on TNT’s alternate broadcast during the NBA All-Star game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana.
During the broadcast, Green said, "Hey Reggie we love you, let’s not have another All-Star [game] in Indiana. Let’s let this be the last one, my friend."
Barkley didn't take too long to blast San Francisco, where Green plays at the Chase Center.
"Hey Reggie," Barkley said. "If you had a chance of being in the cold, or being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco, which would you take?"
"You can’t even walk around down there," Barkley added.
Green defended The City. And the other hosts are also heard saying: "Oh, we love San Francisco."
Green answered definitively, "Yes, you can walk around,"
But Barkley quipped: "Yeah, with a bulletproof vest."
It’s certainly not the first time Barkley has criticized San Francisco.
There was a rare rain delay during Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Warriors and Mavericks in 2022, where the roof at the American Airlines Center in Dallas began leaking.
Barkley used the opportunity to lament that it was not raining in San Francisco, which he believed needed it.
"The bad thing about all this rain, it’s not raining in San Francisco to clean up those dirty-ass streets they got there," Barkley said at the time. "San Francisco, it’s a great city, but all that dirtiness and homelessness, y’all gotta clean that off the streets."
Danny Taplan of Walnut Creek has worked in San Francisco for a long time.
On Monday, he told KTVU that he thinks Barkley is funny, but he joked he didn't want the star and commentator to visit The City anymore.
"San Francisco's not like that," Taplan said.
KTVU's Alice Wertz contributed to this report.