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Charles Barkley Rips Michael Jordan’s “Hitler Mustache”

This is why we love Charles Barkley – he’ll spare no one his unfiltered opinions. He’s on live TV? Doesn’t matter. The subject is his good friend/greatest basketball player ever Michael Jordan? Fortunately, Barkley recently proved that doesn’t matter, either.

The sore subject was Jordan’s…questionable facial hair choice in a recent Hanes ad. Or, more bluntly: his Hitler mustache. It is absolutely, without any question a Hitler mustache. Why would Jordan do that? Bill Simmons called it “a textbook ‘I’m Keith Hernandez’ moment” – in other words, that Jordan was saying in effect, “I’m wearing this horrendous mustache, and you can’t stop me because I’m Michael Jordan and I’m a legend.”

Barkley, though, speaking to Miami-based radio host/columnist Dan Le Batard, was less understanding.

I have got to admit when I saw that commercial I had to take a double take… That is one of the stupidest things that I have seen in a long time.

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When I am shooting the Taco Bell commercial they have got this little woman making sure that every cinnamon twist and every piece of cheese is in order and now they let my man get on TV with that terrible mustache.

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I mean I have got to admit that I don’t know what the hell he was thinking and I don’t know what Hanes was thinking. I mean it is just stupid, it is just bad, plain and simple.

He also talked about LeBron James, but let’s face it, this is the centerpiece of this conversation. And we stand with Yahoo’s Trey Kerby when we say – good for Barkley. Kerby says:

Right on, Charles. Down with the silly ‘stache. Keep speaking truth to power and we can help change the facial-hair world.

The only thing we don’t agree with there is that we’re not sure the facial hair world is what needs changing – when was the last time you saw anyone but Hitler and Jordan wear that style of mustache? No, the issue here is Jordan himself. If he was truly having an “I’m Keith Hernandez” moment, he needs someone to get through to him that even though he’s Michael Jordan, this is not a good idea. Who better than Barkley? (Well, maybe Charles Oakley, but Barkley is still a good option.)

Hopefully Barkley’s ribbing gets through to Jordan and he realizes that there are some looks not even he can pull off. Until that happens, though, we gladly accept Jordan’s gift to the blogosphere, in offensive facial hair form.

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