Charles Barkley has never been one to hold his tongue or filter out his opinions, so we knew at some point, Charles would be asked his opinion on the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman verdict.
Barkley was a guest on the CNBC program Closing Bell, and was asked to give his opinion on the case. Barkley, in a surprising move to some, said “he agreed with the verdict.”
“I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge them,” Barkley said.
“Something clearly went wrong that night. Clearly something went wrong, and I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid. But if you looked at the case and you don’t make it — there was some racial profiling, no question about it. But something happened that changed the dynamic of that night. And I know, and that’s probably not a popular opinion among most people, but just looking at the evidence I agree with the verdict.”
It was Barkley’s view that George Zimmerman was guilty of racial profiling, but that at some point Martin turned the tables on Zimmerman, attacked Zimmerman, and things went terribly wrong from there.
“I think Trayvon Martin, God rest his soul, I think he did flip the switch and start beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman. But it was just a bad situation,” Barkley said.
“You know, that’s the thing that bothered me the most because I watched this trial closely, and I watched all these people on television talking about it,” he said. “A lot of these people have a hidden agenda. You know, they want to have their racist views, whether they are white or black.”
I guess it helps that Barkley is his own man and truly doesn’t care what people think of him, because his opinion will certainly draw a lot of ire towards him.