Former Golden State Warriors big men – and NBA champions – Festus Ezeli and Andrew Bogut reacted to NBA legend Charles Barkley’s opinion on San Francisco.
Barkley claimed that San Francisco is filled with “homeless crooks” and said that you need bulletproof vests to walk around the city.
Charles Barkley again bashed San Francisco, this time around talk of the cold in Indianapolis. "If you had the chance between being cold or being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco, which would you take?" pic.twitter.com/o0W9aUQCyI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 19, 2024
“If you had a chance to be in cold or being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco, which would you take?” Barkley asked Reggie Miller during an alternate broadcast of the 2024 NBA All-Star Game.
Barkley later continued, saying, “You can’t even walk around down there.” Green interjected by saying, “Yes, you can.”
“Yeah, with a bulletproof vest,” Barkley added
The NBA on TNT analyst clearly didn’t hold back on his feelings about the city, which will host the NBA’s All-Star Game next season.
Bogut seemed to agree with Barkley on social media, calling the Hall of Famer a “treasure.”
Chuck is a treasure ! https://t.co/7uRTpY4oQX
— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) February 19, 2024
Another former Warriors big man, Ezeli, who was a part of the team that won the title in the 2014-15 season, appeared to find Barkley’s comments funny, but he shared a different message than Bogut.
The No. 30 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft posted on social media that the perspective of the city needs to change.
Charles Barkley just called San Francisco “homeless crooks” 😂
Damn! We def gotta change the perspective of The Bay— Festus Ezeli (@FestusEzeli) February 19, 2024
Ezeli and Bogut weren’t the only ones to respond to Barkley’s comments about San Francisco over the All-Star break. On Saturday night, Warriors star forward Draymond Green fired back at Barkley for bashing San Francisco, saying that the NBA legend isn’t welcomed there.
Draymond: "For All-Star, we got San Francisco next year."
Chuck: "Oh, that's not a great one."
Draymond: "Relax. That's why you're not welcomed there!" pic.twitter.com/dtCZ6jwuIQ
— Oh no he didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) February 18, 2024
Green called San Francisco a great city for the All-Star game next season, to which Barkley quickly shot down.
“Oh, that’s not a great one,” Barkley said.
Green quickly fired back.
“Relax,” the Warriors champion said. “That’s why you’re not welcomed there.”
The two went on, with Barkley claiming that the city is dangerous, but Green said that “they cleaned it up.”
“It’s looking real good,” Green said. “I promise you. We had a conference in the city about three months ago, and it has changed everything.”
Hopefully, Green’s assessment of the city is correct, as the NBA certainly wouldn’t want the location for the All-Star Game next season to be an unsafe environment.
Barkley certainly didn’t endear himself to any Warriors fans with his comments, so it’ll be interesting to see how he is received if he’s in attendance at the All-Star break next season.
