CNN’s Chris Wallace Asks Charles Barkley About The Time He Spit On An 8-Year-Old Girl At Game

NBA legend and soon-to-be CNN host Charles Barkley told CNN anchor Chris Wallace that spitting at an abusive fan but hitting a little girl instead was a turning point for him.

Wallace interviewed Barkley for this week’s edition of his Max series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace  — which now streams exclusively on Max, and is no longer airing a weekly highlights version on CNN. Barkley will co-host the limited series King Charles with Gayle King for CNN later this year.

In their wide-ranging interview, Wallace asked Barkley about the spitting incident:

WALLACE: All right, this has been very pleasant so far, but we can’t talk about Charles Barkley and ignore the controversies (of course) cause you have gotten into some some scrapes, fights on court, off court. Here’s a picture of you.

BARKLEY: The worst thing about that picture is that shirt.

WALLACE: Not the background.

BARKLEY: Not the background. Listen, I’ve got a couple of mugshots. But the worst thing about that picture is that hideous shirt.

WALLACE: You say that the career changing and maybe life changing lowest point for you was when you accidentally spit on a girl at a game. Why was that?

BARKLEY: That was a great thing for me. But yeah, you know, sometimes (a great thing?) a great thing first. You can learn from mistakes. So, you know, Chris, I was angry. I was an angry young kid. I was mad. Every time I stepped on the basketball court, I was just an angry young man. And that night, I learned a lesson. Like if you keep hanging on, if you’re on the edge of the cliff, it ain’t a matter of if – it’s just a matter of when you’re gonna fall off. And that was I never forget her name. Lauren. I’ll never forget her name. And she was great to me. She was kind (you became friends with her and her family?) Yes, she gave me grace. But that was the turning point in my anger. And I was like, You know what, how about just being good at basketball because you’re good at it, instead of trying to stick it to your enemies. And I don’t know if I hadn’t reached that low point. If it would not have changed

Watch above via Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.