Charles Barkley Bursts Shaquille O’Neal’s Bubble in Animated Debate Over GQ Magazine’s Milestone: “Shaq Ugly in All 50 States”

We think Charles Barkley is a little salty about his hairless beauty going unnoticed. It’s been a month and he’s still taking it out on the fifth and ninth sexiest bald men ‘in the world.’ He was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where he and his King Charles co-host, Gayle King got expressive about their man-crushes. But while Bradley Cooper and Idris Elba rank high on Chuck’s Man Crush list, he doesn’t think his TNT bestie deserves to be on any list.

When Colbert asked if he thinks Shaquille O’Neal is attractive, Barkley’s response was a loud and emphatic, “Oh hell no!” The late-night host pointed out that Shaq has a lot of reason to believe he is the ninth-best thing since sliced bread. Chuck is still mad about that boost to his ego. In December 2023, a list went viral on the Internet naming Prince William as the sexiest bald man in the world. The list had other smooth-headed celebrities, including Michael Jordan at #5 and O’Neal at #9.

Though it looks otherwise, Barkley claims, “It didn’t hurt my feelings,” to be left out on the list. “Because we found, first of all, he’s not sexy at all. He’s ugly,” Chuck said about Shaq, which apparently softened the blow of the snub. He downplayed Big Diesel’s globally-ranked beauty on a geopolitical basis too.

The list featured in GQ but the Inside the NBA pranksters discovered it’s the South Africa edition. Not only did they poke fun at that on TNT, Barkley dug it up here too. “First of all he’s ugly in South Africa and America. Shaq is ugly in all 50 states.” 

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Barkley will face the music when he returns to Studio J for this week’s NBA double-header on Thursday. At least Gayle King tried to change his mind. He put her on the spot though and she said Shaq is “great.” “That’s two different things,” Barkley countered and we have to agree.

Charles Barkley believes he’s better looking than Shaq

When the list came out, Barkley interrogated Shaq about how much he allegedly paid to be picked for it. But this is all in jest. The 1993 NBA MVP added a late disclaimer, “I love the big fella. He’s a great guy. But he’s not attractive.” He doesn’t give Michael Jordan that courtesy either.

But what does Sir Charles think about Sir Charles? “Hey, I’m not great lookin’ but I’m better lookin’ than Michael Jordan… and I’m damn sure better lookin’ than Shaquille O’Neal.”

Chuck sparked a social media frenzy discussing who is better-looking among these three NBA titans. Who would you crown in this pageant?

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