On Wednesday, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports authored a piece about NBA journeyman Tony Snell’s efforts to sign a contract with a team before Friday. You probably saw it making its way around the internet, but the long and the short of it is that Snell has two sons — Karter, who is 3, and Kenzo, who is 2. Both were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and in order for Snell to become eligible for the National Basketball Players Association’s premium medical plan that would give them health benefits, he needs to end up on a roster for the remainder of the 2023-24 season, and Friday is the deadline for that to happen.
It’s a pretty incredible story (Jake, if you’re reading this, great job, my guy), one that resonated with a whole lot of people. One of them was Charles Barkley, who took some time after the TNT NBA crew announced the 2024 All-Star reserves to call on a team to give Snell a roster spot.
Charles Barkley calls on NBA teams to sign Tony Snell after a viral article from @YahooSports this week detailed the veteran forward's need for medical coverage for his two children with Autism pic.twitter.com/VOgk2RF73o
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 2, 2024
“The NBA’s been great to all of us sitting up here,” Barkley said. “And you guys are gonna be playing basketball forever making a gazillion dollars. I hope one of you guys signs Tony so his two autistic kids can get great medical care … I hope a team signs him for the rest of the season, because I don’t know a lot about autism, I ain’t gonna say that. But man, I know it’s gotta be expensive to have two young kids with that situation. I’m hoping the NBA, we always talk about what a family we are, let’s sign that kid for the rest of the season.”
Kenny Smith called on Adam Silver to step in and make some sort of exception for Snell, who is currently with the Maine Celtics of the G League. No matter how it happens, here’s hoping Snell is able to get a 10th year of service as soon as possible.
