NBA and Phoenix Suns legend Charles Barkley is known for being a quick-witted, outspoken man. His banter and jabs at Shaq when they appear as analysts on Inside the NBA have entertained us for years. However, he may have gone too far during the 2024 NBA All-Star Game. And some of his comments from back then are resurfacing, bringing a lot of heat down on ‘Sir Charles’.

For the uninitiated, Charles Barkley tore into the city of San Francisco during the alternate broadcast of last year’s All-Star Game on TNT. It happened when he gave HOFer Reggie Miller a choice. He asked Reggie to pick between the cold in Indianapolis or, “being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco.” Mind you, Miller played for 18 years there, spending the entirety of his NBA career in Indiana. 

“We love San Francisco,” said Candance Parker, trying to moderate the situation. “No, we don’t. You can’t even walk around down there” Chuck replied in a heartbeat. Bay Area favorite, Draymond Green pushed back hard against Barkley’s claims. “Yes you can walk around,” asserted Green. But quick on his feet as always, Chuck responded, “Yeah, with a bulletproof vest.”

While Barkley’s take is hilarious, it does bring a lot of bad press to the Bay Area. Moreover, this year’s All-Star game is set to emanate from the Chase Center in the Bay Area, home to the Golden State Warriors. Luckily, Mayor London Breed’s office has a report that will quell all fears. They reported that the city has seen a massive drop in crime.

While crime and drug use were at a fever pitch the year prior, it seems the situation is a lot better this time around. The press release claimed that violent crimes and property crimes were down 14% and 31% respectively. While we can’t get into all the nitty-gritty of the press release, we can say that Chuck has little to worry about this year.

Whether he wins the 2025 All-Star game or not, however, will depend solely on him. In fact, he picked his All-Star team already, so let’s see what he’ll be working with on February 16.

Charles Barkley picks his 2025 NBA All-Star team

A few hours ago, live on TNT, the Inside the NBA analysts picked their respective NBA All-Star teams. If you didn’t know, this year’s All-Star format saw a massive shakeup. There are no more team captains. Instead, the aforementioned analysts are GMs for 3 out of the 4 All-Star teams with Candace Parker acting as the honorary GM for the 4th team.

After waiting a long time, we finally have the teams. Well, 3 of them, Parker’s team, will be decided by the Rising Stars tournament. But speaking of ‘Sir Charles’, he picked quite a solid team for this year’s All-Star game. Barkley selected the incredible Nikola Jokic as his first pick. A no-brainer, since Jokic is the best player in the league currently. Here’s the full squad:

• Giannis Antetokounmpo
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Nikola Jokic
• Donovan Mitchell
• Alperen Sengun
• Pascal Siakam
• Karl-Anthony Towns
• Victor Wembanyama

In all honesty, Charles did a bang-up job in picking his team. However, they will have to get past another three teams full of incredible players to win bragging rights at the All-Star game. Shaq’s team, especially, poses the toughest test to his team. Whereas, on paper, Kenny Smith’s team looks like a free win. But this is the All-Star game where truly anything can happen.

However, we reckon Barkley has a good shot at winning with the team he’s drafted this year. We just hope he can get past his reservations around the city of San Francisco before February 16!