Charles Barkley Surprises Adam Silver With Domestic Violence Question During Live Broadcast

Charles Barkley didn’t hesitate to start a serious conversation with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver during an NBA opening night interview on TNT.

Just as Silver’s broadcast with the “Inside the NBA” crew was about to come to a close, Barkley brought up the topic of domestic violence issues involving NBA players.

After discussing the Denver Nuggets first championship, the offseason, load management, Ja Morant’s status and other relevant topics with Silver, Barkley said he had a “serious question” before going to commercial break.

“There’s a couple of 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, and we should be at the forefront in sports when men hit women,” Barkley said. “So, what are we as a league gonna do about that?”

The last-minute question seemed to throw Silver slightly off guard, but he jumps right in to address the issue of domestic violence.

“That’s an area where we’re not looking to compete against other leagues when you say forefront. I think all the leagues are trying to address this issue. But I know, again, our players association, credit to them, this wasn’t adversarial,” Silver explained. 

“We put in place a new program for how we deal with, first of all, accusations of domestic violence even before they’re prosecuted. Part of it goes to the training of our players, counseling of our players to make sure they understand during high-stress situations, obviously never to resort to violence against anyone and so we’re addressing it. 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.” 

Barkley’s question to Silver about domestic violence comes amid a few high-profile cases that involved NBA players, including Kevin Porter Jr. and Miles Bridges.

When the topic of load management was brought up, Silver explained that it's not “about the players not wanting to play” and “was a concept that came from our teams, a belief that by strategically resting players, they were going to perform better later in the season.” 

After a “bunch of seasons of data,” Silver said it’s not proven in any way that it has been effective and injury rates have not declined at all because of load management. That’s when Barkley entered the chat.

“I’m talking to the players, man, forget the ownership, forget the fans, as a player, if you’re gonna make $50, $60 million dollars to play basketball three or four days a week, play basketball, man,” Barkley said. “If you’re injured, don’t play. But everybody hurts after the first two weeks of the season. You’re legs sore, you’re knees sore. If you’re injured, I don’t want you to play.”

He continued to explain that the players have “the best shoes” and “the best medical staff,” so Barkley wants them to “shut the h— up and play” if they can play. 

Load management wasn’t a thing when Barkley played and has been under scrutiny from fans and former NBA players over the last few years. 

Players are now required to play at least 65 games to be eligible for individual awards, and with many star players having clauses in their contracts about accolades, load management gives them no choice but to play more games.