ESPN’s Rachel Nichols had some tough talk for TNT’s Charles Barkley. Before you think it’s a network war, keep in mind Nichols and Barkley are former colleagues and have been friends for a very long time. Nichols is quoted as saying she loves Chuck like a big brother.
When discussing the Golden State Warriors, Chuck referred to their style of play as ‘girly.’ For those that follow the NBA, this is no surprise. Chuck has long been a critic of teams that shoot jumpers and favor the current modern game versus the slowed down, pound the ball inside, heavy isolation game he built his Hall of Fame career on. Check out the video of Chuck from TNT’s Inside the NBA.
Charles Barkley explains why he doesn’t like the way the Golden State Warriors play basketball pic.twitter.com/DaTud8Lwje
— Super Wob (@World_Wide_Wob) December 2, 2016
Chuck has long been the type of person that says whatever comes to mind. The good side is it makes for great tv. The bad side is when there is nobody to check him he often says things that are at best insensitive and at worse inflammatory. The term ‘girly’ is coded language for soft and that is disrespectful to women. Chuck was operating in male privilege and that is what has allowed society to accept this type of language that is disparaging to women.
Nichols texted Barkley about his use of the term and shared the interaction and her feelings on The Jump.
thankful for @Rachel__Nichols pic.twitter.com/Hz556EghBq
— Becca Laurie, PI (@imbeccable) December 2, 2016
Kudos to Rachel for taking Charles to task on this. Even if he meant it in fun or didn’t mean to offend women, he did. One of the things as a society we need to understand and realize is the power of language. Words are said so easily without full understanding of meaning and used in the wrong context. The scary part is it becomes accepted in mainstream society and this is where problems occur. Everyone do better, and smarten up Chuck.