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Charles Barkley’s Message For Mitt Romney: “You’re Goin’ Down, Bro”

The Celtics’ 101-79 blowout win over the Hawks had one particularly high-profile spectator: Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor and presumptive Republican presidential nominee this fall. We’ll leave to you the potential jokes about the photo at left – the level of comfort (or lack thereof) Romney appears to have waving the towel around, the way wife Ann looks like she’s barely concealing utter disgust, two name two potential subjects. What we’re more interested in is something Charles Barkley said upon learning Romney was in attendance:

One: no one else sounded like they wanted to touch Barkley’s comments there, did they? Of course, that was with good reason, because political talk – especially on a usually-non-political show – can get dicey very, very fast. But Barkley’s never been one to hold back – Inside the NBA is as good as it is precisely because he doesn’t.

And Sir Charles talking about his political leanings isn’t anything new – he’s been doing it for years. He used to talk all the time about maybe running for governor of Alabama one day until he finally abandoned that plan, and used to identify as a Republican, leading to one of the better quotes ever attributed to him:

“I was asked for years about being a Republican, probably because most black people are Democrats. My mother heard it once and called me and said “Charles, Republicans are for the rich people.” And I said, “Mom, I’m rich.”

But the Republican affiliation didn’t last, which Barkley also talked openly about… and now this. Safe to say, he’s still not a Republican. Really, though, considering he said this not too long ago, throwing a little trash talk Romney’s way – even if it’s actually on Inside the NBA, as opposed to some other media appearance outside his regular job – seems pretty harmless. Hell, he even said he likes Romney and thinks he’s a “nice guy.” Maybe the real story is that Barkley seems to like Romney more than most Republicans do.

[Huffington Post]

AP photo, by Michael Dwyer, via