Basketball commentator Charles Barkley tore into politicians on both sides of the aisle on Thursday as part of a rant about name, image and likeness (NIL) rights.
During the NCAA pregame show, Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg sat down with new NCAA President Charlie Baker to get his thoughts on the perplexing issue of NIL regulation. The former Massachusetts Governor said he would like to get the federal government involved with the intent of protecting student athletes seeking deals.
Baker told the hosts he wanted to create NIL “consumer protections” for students and families. (RELATED: Donald Trump, Charles Barkley And An NFL Legend: LIV Golf Announces Celebrity Tournament Lineup)
“I would really love to see some sort of uniform, standard contract so that when somebody signs it, they know they’re signing the same kind of agreement everyone else is signing,” Baker said.
Charles Barkley slammed NCAA President Charlie Baker’s idea about talking to politicians on ways to help college athletes https://t.co/We3G4BxvdJ
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 24, 2023
“We’re talk some with the folks in Washington about this,” Baker added, “and there’s a fair amount of appetite to try to deal with this.”
Charles Barkley shook his head in disapproval immediately after the segment ended, sharing impassioned thoughts about Baker’s proposal to get the federal government involved with NIL regulation.
“Did he say we’re gonna ask the politicians to help us?” Barkley asked, “See, that pisses me off already. Our politicians are awful people.”
Barkley said that he would instead assemble a committee of people with basketball experience to handle the issue.
“We can’t ask these politicians nothing,” Barkley said, “Those people are awful people, Democrats and Republicans. They’re all crooks.”