Charles Barkley Admits True Motive Behind Joining the Much Hated “Losers” Is Money

In late February, something that we never imagined happened. Charles Barkley joined the bandwagon that Shaq had been using to torment him for a while. Social media aficionado Shaquille O’Neal had been making memes out of Barkley for a long time at that point. Even without having social media of his own, Chuck had become a viral phenom already, a huge part thanks to his 7’1″ buddy. Despite O’Neal’s demonstration of Chuckster’s online appeal, it took decades before he broke his anti-social media policy. Barkley finally confessed what made him sign up on Instagram during an appearance on SI Media. Sorry Shaq, it’s not you.

“It’s been an interesting thing because I got a vodka and a gin. You know I look for business in Alabama, so I bought a distillery in Alabama, and they’re like, ‘You can’t just go word of mouth. You need to hold some events, do some bottle signings,’ and things like that. And they said, ‘The best way to get your message out is put it on Instagram when you have these bottle signings and things like that’ and I say I’ll do it,” Chuck said on the podcast.

He’s referring to Redmont Vodka, a Birmingham-based distillery that brought in $5 million in revenue as of 2022. His motive behind Redmont is boosting his hometown’s economy and his associates convinced him that Instagram will enable that. So, yes, profit for purpose was a driving factor for Chuck to break his own rules.

He used to be vocal about his hate for social media because of the hate culture on it. Even now, he told Jimmy Traina, “I’m not gonna go back and forth … I don’t want losers thinking their opinion matter.” For that reason, he won’t be joining X (or Twitter as Chuck still refers to as). In the past, Chuck infamously said, “Social media is where losers go to feel important.” And no, it’s not a jab to Shaq.

Shaquille O’Neal is Charles Barkley’s Instagram tutor

In February, Barkley said he’s trying out social media for “business purposes.” Instantly, Shaq, Kenny, and Ernie disrupted his peace. They grilled him on follower count (Chuck is still at 387k to Shaq’s 32 million) and online jargon like ‘sliding into DMs.’ Shaq even encouraged him to take it a step ahead and join OnlyFans. His first attempt at an Instagram live was laughable. Shaq flustered him with made-up definitions for ‘Finsta.’

No longer is Chuck that novice. Barkley deftly entertained queries for The Steam Room on Instagram and clapped back to trolls in comments. Apart from using it for his business promotions, he told Traina he’s enjoying social media artists. He’s connected with the country-pop duo, Dan + Shay, and enjoys Andrew Zimmern’s food page.

The student has become the loser… apologies… master. Shaq should be proud of Chuck.