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After Toronto Raptors big man Jontay Porter was given a lifetime ban, 11-time NBA All-Star Charles Barkley gave his two cents on the matter. While speaking to NBA Radio on SiriusXM, Barkley said that while he understood the NBA's decision to give Porter a lifetime ban, he hoped that the sanction wasn't quite as severe.
The "NBA on TNT" host said that Porter should have been given another chance and that he should have been suspended for at least five years. Barkley even quoted legendary college football coach Nick Saban as he expressed his desire for leniency toward Porter.
With the case surrounding Jontay Porter being divisive among NBA fans, it's no wonder Charles Barkley's comments have also become scrutinized.
Several fans decided to go after Barkley's well-documented problems with gambling specifically.
"Of course Chuck will feel like this. He had/has a gambling addiction himself," replied @ColeWorldSIMBA on X.
More piled on, including @JimmerThomp who said, "Of course. Coming from a compulsive gambler like Charles."
Another reply with the same theme came from @Giftaveli posting, "Says the person with a gambling problem."
Others agreed with Barkley in a way, pointing out that there are players in the league today who have been embroiled in issues quite recently.
"We have wife beaters and pedos in the league FREE JONTAY PORTER," tweeted @JuniorGotNext.
Another tweet that sided with Chuck was from @xDcentric, who said, "Agreed. Straight lifetime ban is tough. I get it. What he did is bad but to strip away everything just like that…. Betting on his own team to lose is what did it I think."
Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith parody account @stephenaismith wondered why Barkley would ask the league to be lenient, commenting "Why would Charles be sympathetic to a player fixing games?"
Regardless of what Charles Barkley or anyone else says, Adam Silver has arrived at a decision and it looks like Jontay Porter will never again set foot on an NBA court.
Charles Barkley has openly spoken about his gambling issues
During an interview on 'In Depth with Graham Bensinger' from 2016, Charles Barkley candidly talked about his personal struggles with gambling. The former Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns forward admitted that winning money through it made him feel excited which is what got him hooked on gambling.
In fact, Barkley even shared that his mentality wasn't to "win big," but simply to "win." While he hit the jackpot several times, saying that he had won a million dollars around four or five times in a single day, he also experienced the bitterness of losing.
According to Barkley, there were more incidents wherein he lost something close to a million dollars in a single day than when he won that amount.
He wasn't quite sure how many times this has happened but the NBA legend said that it's in the double-digits, occurring " at least 10-15" times. He later on corrected himself and changed the amount to a range of 10-20 dating back to the 1980's.
However, the difference between Charles Barkley and Jontay Porter is that the former did not bet on his games, his team, much less himself. Instead, Barkley has gambled in casinos and at some point, even had a complaint lobbied against him from a casino when he failed to pay his debt in a timely manner.
Guess the Bulls players in this quiz and it's not going to be easy!
