{"id":491477,"date":"2026-06-13T22:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T22:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/491477\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T22:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T22:38:18","slug":"charles-barkley-speaks-out-after-crass-cardi-b-remark-during-nba-finals-i-would-love-for-them-to-fire-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/491477\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley speaks out after crass Cardi B remark during NBA finals: \u2018I would love for them to fire me\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst Charles Barkley <\/a>has dared the network to fire him after a rude on-air comment <\/a>about Cardi B\u2019s appearance landed him in hot water.<\/p>\n

Barkley make the viral joke during Game 3 of the NBA Finals earlier this week as the New York Knicks took on the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>. While Cardi B took the court at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden<\/a> for a halftime show, it wasn\u2019t her performance that caught his attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if those Bs. Those might be Cardi Ds. I\u2019m pretty sure those aren\u2019t Bs. She\u2019s got the wrong initials,\u201d Barkley said, clearly referring to the rapper\u2019s cleavage.<\/p>\n

The former NBA star then spoke about the comment on The Dan Patrick Show. Asked if he has ever been told by management to tone it down, Barkley said: \u201cI\u2019m hoping they fire me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got six or seven years left on my contract that they know I\u2019ve got no chance of doing. I would love for them to fire me and have to pay me for the next six or seven years,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\"ESPN<\/p>\n

ESPN analyst Charles Barkley has dared the network to fire him after a rude on-air comment about Cardi B\u2019s appearance landed him in hot water (Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my agent. I was like, \u2018What can I do to get fired, but they\u2019d have to pay me for the whole six, seven years?\u2019 I would love to get fired, I\u2019m not gon\u2019 lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley continued<\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s zero chance that I\u2019mma be working the next six, seven years. Zero. So I know if they fired me, they\u2019d have to pay me all of those years. And I heard through the grapevine that I make great money; so thank goodness for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also had a clear message for those who were offended by his joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cC\u2019mon, man. People can\u2019t take a joke. They can kiss my ass,\u201d he said defiantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate and love all the support I\u2019ve gotten all these years, but anybody [that] thinks everybody likes them, they a fool. So, if people don\u2019t like me or don\u2019t have a sense of humor, they can kiss my ass. My whole ass, not just one cheek, the whole ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley\u2019s on-air remark <\/a>prompted laughter among the broadcasters, with his co-host Ernie Johnson saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know who said that, but I know it wasn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cardi<\/p>\n

Cardi B performed at the NBA Finals in New York City (ABC)<\/p>\n

However, it was not met kindly online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe man is a grown adult on national television reducing a performer to her body like it\u2019s 1995. It\u2019s not funny, it\u2019s not clever, it\u2019s just sad,\u201d one person wrote on X while another said, \u201cI just lost all respect for those guys\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese old men cracking jokes at the performer\u2019s expense felt so inappropriate \u2026. GROW UP OLD MEN,\u201d someone else chimed in.<\/p>\n

For her part, Cardi B appeared to take it in stride, retweeting a post on X with the caption: \u201c\u2018Cardi D\u2019 is trending at #7 on X\/Twitter following Charles Barkley\u2019s joke during Cardi B\u2019s #NBAFinals halftime show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks will look to win the championship Saturday night in San Antonio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN analyst Charles Barkley has dared the network to fire him after a rude on-air comment about Cardi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6094,180877,85,46,217940,9243,96250,149046,105],"class_list":["post-491477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cardi-b","tag-charles-barkley","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}