NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley slammed LeBron James for practicing his golf swing during the national anthem before the 76ers’ October 20 game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“I thought that was very disrespectful, practicing your golf swing in the middle of the anthem,” Barkley said earlier this week. “I always stand for the anthem. I just think it’s important. We live in the greatest country ever.”
Barkley said the anthem deserves respect, even from players who want to make a point.
“This country … not even close to being perfect. It’s a great, great, great country, but it’s not close to being perfect,” he added, “And you can protest, but I think you have to do it very [respectfully]. I really believe that. I look at it, I’m supporting the troops when I stand for the national anthem. I’m standing there for free speech.”
Barkley added that he doesn’t pay attention to what President Donald Trump says on the issue. Trump ripped James two days after cameras caught the basketball star, now a Sixers forward, rehearsing his swing while the “Star-Spangled Banner” played at the Garden.
“While listening to our National Anthem, LeBron James disrespects our Country!” the president wrote. He called the four-time champ “a TOTAL DISGRACE” and demanded an apology to “Great American Warriors and Heroes who died for the American Flag.”
It’s hardly the first time James has drawn fire for knocking the country that made him a billionaire.
In July 2022, while WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia, James wondered aloud on his show “The Shop” whether Griner would even want to come home.
“How can she feel like America has her back?” he asked.
Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, an outspoken critic of Turkey’s and China’s regimes, quickly hit back. He told James he was “free to leave.”
After the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, James showed up to the arena in a “Do you understand now” T-shirt. He said black Americans get “a slap in the face” from the nation and that the country looked like a “third, fourth, fifth-world country.”
Critics have long noted the irony. James built a reported $1.4 billion fortune on American soil, including a $154 million Lakers deal in 2018 and a lifetime contract with Nike, a company with deep manufacturing ties to China.
He also drew backlash recently for knocking “stay-at-home” women, saying he couldn’t be with a partner who sits on the couch all day.
Barkley, for his part, has been consistent. During the 2020 wave of anthem kneeling, he defended players who chose to stand.
“If we have a guy who doesn’t want to kneel ’cause the anthem means something to him, he should not be vilified,” Barkley said at the time.
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