Charles Barkley Rips ESPN Analyst Suggesting NBA Award Voters Are Racist: ‘Asinine, Silly, And Stupid’

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Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley ripped ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins for suggesting NBA writers who vote on the league’s MVP award are racist.

Perkins was a guest on First Take last week when the debate show discussed who should win the 2022-2023 NBA season MVP. Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić is one of the favorites to win the league’s most prestigious regular season achievement.

Perkins brought up past instances where players have won the award but did not finish in the top 10 in league scoring: Former Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, former Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash, and Jokić. All three players are White.

“What do those guys have in common? I’ll let it sit there and marinate. You think about it,” Perkins said. “When it comes down to moving the goalposts for certain individuals to win it, again, is it Oochie Wally? Or is it One Mic? What song are we actually dancing to right now? Why is this subject not brought up?”

On Tuesday’s installment of First Take, Perkins was met with heavy pushback from ESPN analyst JJ Redick.

“What we just witnessed is the problem with this show,” Redick said. “Where we create narratives that do not exist in reality. The implication what you are implying that the White voters that vote on NBA are racist. They favor White people.”

From there, the two got into a nasty back-and-forth before the segment ended.

Barkley, a guest on the Moser, Lombardi, and Kane show for Colorado’s 92.5 Altitude Sports Radio, dropped the hammer on Perkins, when asked about his comments.

“That’s asinine and silly,” Barkley said. “Asinine, silly, and stupid. Pick one of the words, whatever one you want.”

“One of the things that’s silly about ESPN, at times, they do this silly debate every year about the MVP,” he said. “Going back to even when I played.”

Barkley explained that the MVP award does not necessarily go out to the best player in the league, and “you can probably count the White guys on one hand who won MVP.”

The NBA Hall of Famer then took a direct shot at the network Perkins made his comments on.

“I hate this silly argument that we have every year because it’s disingenuous, it’s wrong, but I always talk about ESPN disease,” Barkley said. “A lot of these guys, when they get on TV instead, they like, ‘well, I’m on ESPN; I gotta say something proactive.'”

Watch above via Altitude Sports Radio.