UPDATE: The Athletic confirmed Barkley’s question to Silver was “on the spot and not scripted” during the broadcast.
Before the season officially tipped off, Inside the NBA spoke with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Charles Barkley had an important question.
During the time that the team had with Silver before the Lakers played against the Nuggets in Denver, the former NBA big man asked Silver about one of the more troubling issues in the league.
Before they cut to a commercial break, Barkley asked Silver about domestic violence allegations against several active players in the league. Earlier this offseason, Silver had a concerning answer about why Hornets forward Miles Bridges got a shortened suspension for his domestic violence incident.
Charles Barkley confronts NBA commissioner Adam Silver after numerous offseason incidents of domestic violence among NBA athletes: pic.twitter.com/u0LjxLiLRd
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2023
Here was the question from Barkley to Silver:
“I got a serious question for you. There’s a couple disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now. What are we doing to address that? … You can’t put your hands on women, man. … What are we, as a league, going to do about that?”
This is not the first time that Barkley has criticized Silver for his policy on domestic violence in the NBA. He has said as much since 2014.
Here was what Silver said in response:
“That’s an area where we’re not looking to compete against other leagues. … Our players’ association, credit to them, this wasn’t adversarial. We put in place a new program for how we deal with, first of all, accusations of domestic violence even before they are prosecuted. Part of it goes to training of our players, counseling of our players to make sure they understand during high-stress situations, never resort to violence against anyone. We’re addressing. We have state of the art counseling professionals dealing with our players. But of course, if a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.”
This answer likely didn’t go far enough to address this serious concern, nor does it align with recent suspensions and discplinary actions.
"If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous" does not exactly match what the consequences have actually been. https://t.co/W8lr7DpUvh
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) October 24, 2023
We have previously written about how the NBA should be ashamed of how they handled the ongoing issue with Bridges in Charlotte.
My colleague, Mike Sykes, also wrote about why the Rockets and Thunder ought to feel shame about how they handled the situation with Kevin Porter Jr. after his domestic violence arrest.
