Wait a second. Those of us who admire Barkley admire him for being outspoken and saying things that would get a lot of other people in trouble. That's fine, because a lot of those things are true, and pretty funny to boot.
So now, after being barraged with the same questions for the last several months, over and over until he probably wants to punch out every reporter who asks him about it, LeBron says one thing that wasn't perfectly tactful.
As is his right, Barkley rips him a new one. Which seems pretty hypocritical coming from someone who once SPIT on a fan, but for every three funny/true things Charles says, he says one or two stupid things. Even those of us who like him would admit that.
But the real question is this: Why can't LeBron take a swipe back at Barkley? If Barkley gets a break when he says something controversial because of who he is, why doesn't anyone else get to tell him he's being stupid sometimes?
I'm fine with allowing Charles a double standard, but it has to be fine for anyone else to use that same standard against him. I'm also guessing that LeBron doesn't hate Charles.