Charles Barkley is rarely afraid to speak his mind or say something borderline controversial, so it should come as no surprise that the Turner studio analyst was willing to poke a little fun at the recent Arizona scandal when discussing Deandre Ayton.
It’s important to note that Ayton and coach Sean Miller have denied the initial report of Miller discussing a $100,000 payment to Ayton on a wiretapped phone call with disgraced agent Christian Dawkins, and there have been numerous reports questioning whether Ayton could have possibly been the prospect in question considering the alleged timing of the wiretap. Ayton has remained eligible to play for Arizona, and after missing one game, Miller has returned to the Wildcats’ bench.
However, with Barkley (and the rest of the internet,) facts don’t always matter when it comes time to get jokes off. While Barkley was lavishing Ayton with praise as being the best prospect in all of college basketball, he couldn’t help but joke about him being a bargain even if Arizona was forking over six figures for him.
Charles Barkley on Arizona's DeAndre Ayton: "If they gave him $100,000, where I'm from, they call that a bargain." #BearDown #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/8SDnpcmxyC
— ThePostGame (@ThePostGame) March 7, 2018
“Ooh, sh*t,” Barkley said. “I tell you that kid — I haven’t seen the kid playing overseas — but the best player coming out of America is that boy there at Arizona. He’s unbelievable. If they gave him $100,000, where I’m from they call that a bargain.”
Barkley is of course talking about Luka Doncic when he mentions “the kid playing overseas,” and he’s almost certainly right about Ayton, who had he been able to leave high school would have been able to pick up millions in the NBA Draft. So, while it probably won’t please the NCAA for Barkley to say this just before he hops on Turner and CBS’ coverage of March Madness, he’s right to point out that would be a bargain if Arizona was paying him that kind of money.
