Woke NBA Hall of Fame star Charles Barkley sparked intense backlash over the weekend when he used CBS’s March Madness broadcast before UConn’s Elite Eight game against Duke to denounce the way the United States is treating what he called immigrants while failing to distinguish between legal, and illegal immigrants.
“I want to be very careful with my words right now because this is a touchy subject for me,” Barkley said on air as he reacted to a feature on UConn forward Alex Karaban, whose parents immigrated from Belarus and Ukraine.
“I love that kid and his family, but the way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace,” he continued, drawing a distinction between “amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants” and calling recent policies “really unfortunate” and “really sad.”
Barkley went on to say that immigrants “built this country” and insisted that their stories “need to be told,” arguing they should be “admired and respected,” comments that came as the Trump administration intensifies immigration raids and deportation operations in major U.S. cities targeting illegal aliens.
Clips of the segment quickly went viral as sports and politics accounts including Awful Announcing, The Recount and others shared the video across X, TikTok and Facebook.
A wave of backlash hit social media, as critics complained that he was politicizing a college basketball broadcast, asking why immigration was being discussed “on a college show” and telling him to stick to basketball.
An Instagram reel attacking the segment repeated Barkley’s description of immigrant treatment as a “travesty and a disgrace” and concluded that he “should shut up,” capturing anger from viewers who opposed his critique of current U.S. policy.
Conservative commentators resurfaced Barkley’s earlier remarks about migrants “beating up cops” and his complaints that “the border is a joke,” using those past comments to accuse him of flip‑flopping on immigration and to tell him to “pick a side.”
Sponsor | https://www.purgestore.com | Use promo code DREW for 20% off and support The Gateway Pundit today!
Follow Drew on X: https://x.com/DrewHLive
Follow Drew on Rumble: https://rumble.com/DrewHernandez
The post Woke NBA Hall of Fame Star Charles Barkley Simps For Illegal Aliens on Live TV? | Drew Hernandez appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.