“They Should Just Kiss”: Charles Barkley Has Hilarious Response to Aggressive “Lovers” Altercation During Kings vs. Pelicans

Charles Barkley wants world peace. Unless you have better things to do. That brief altercation between Trey Lyles and Jonas Valanciunas during Monday’s night In-Season Tournament game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings went under the foul radar but not unnoticed by fans. Chuck definitely couldn’t ignore it. The NBA legend with a few heated on-court scuffles to his credit suggested an alternative to the absurd aggression.

A more violent show of aggression was all the NBA could talk about recently. But at the TNT studio, Sir Charles downplayed the incident.

Charles Barkley has a suggestion for arguing players

The New Orleans Pelicans secured their spot in the InSseason tournament semifinals in Las Vegas after they beat the Sacramento Kings 127-117. Before the game ended though, Trey Lyles and Jonas Valanciunas had a verbal exchange before Lyles apparently threw a punch towards the latter’s head.

He missed by a long shot. Everyone saw the tense moment though and broadcasters called it a “modified swing” towards the Pelicans big man. Lyles got a technical but no one was ejected.

Charles Barkley found the exchange so laughable on Inside the NBA, that he declared, “They should just kiss ’cause neither one of them gonna do anything.” Is that Chuck’s way of asking for a real fight? He has a history of recognizing a real brawl. This one wasn’t a fight in his books. “These guys are lovers, not fighters.” 

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An incident when he accidentally spat at an eight-year-old girl during a game was effective in curbing Barkley’s angry prime era. But he has some infamous incidents his friends at TNT never let him forget.

Chuck’s ‘lovers spat’ is TNT fodder

A fiery Charles Barkley was on an equally fiery ’84 76ers team when a ‘real’ altercation broke out on the court. Chuck had Celtics star, Larry Bird in a chokehold during a chaotic melee involving them, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving. When the TNT crew brought it up last year, Barkley defended himself saying he was “holding” Bird and breaking up the fight.

He’d say the same during the recent Draymond Green chokehold debacle. He’d say, “he’s just holdin’ him,” to describe the interaction between Klay Thompson and Rudy Gobert that preceded the chaos. No one could convince him that Gobert manhandled Thompson first.

Though Shaquille O’Neal once again brought up the 1984 brawl to say, “You did the same thing.” Chuck can’t contest that. He’s however, over the fights and prefers to see basketball players play the game.

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