“Basketball is our sanctuary… It is our safe place.” @SHAQ & Charles on the passing of Isaiah Thomas’ sister. pic.twitter.com/NhJvqmPf9m
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 16, 2017
Charles Barkley’s comment that Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas’ show of grief ahead of Sunday night’s game made him uncomfortable didn’t sit too well with a large segment of the Internet.
Thomas had received word Sunday morning, April 16, before the Celtics faced the Chicago Bulls that his 22-year-old sister Chyna Thomas had been killed Saturday in a single-car accident. Cameras showed Thomas sitting on the bench crying before the game as teammate and friend Avery Bradley comforted him.
The News Tribune reported that Chyna Thomas was not wearing her seatbelt when the 1998 Toyota Camry she was driving drifted off the interstate and crashed into a barrier in Federal Way, Wash.
Thomas scored 33 points in the Celtics’ 106-102 loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
“I’m not feeling comfortable with him sitting on the sideline crying like that,” Barkley says on the TNT pregame show. “That makes me uncomfortable so that tells me he’s not in shape to play.”
“I mean, I don’t know how this night is gonna turn out,” Barkley says. “But, to be sitting on the sideline a few minutes before the game, crying, that makes me uncomfortable for him. That’s just not a good look, in my personal opinion. I mean, he is clearly devastated — like we all would be if we lost a sibling — but sitting on the sidelines right before the game, that makes me uncomfortable.”
Twitter users quickly admonished Barkley.
https://twitter.com/AlexOtt6/status/853768543820820480
Charles Barkley is a douchebag how are you gonna say it makes you uncomfortable watching someone grieve about losing a sister
— Muhammad Tariq (@mhtariq18) April 16, 2017
Charles Barkley: "Isaiah Thomas crying makes me uncomfortable"
Me: pic.twitter.com/eCSmGlt6Qf
— Matthew McCaughey (@MattMcCaughey29) April 17, 2017
Some didn’t find Barkley’s statement offensive.
yeah i think a lot of yall are really taking what Charles Barkley said out of context
— 🎤N-jay 🏀 (@_Njay3) April 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/AT_Tunechi/status/853740408479920132
https://twitter.com/FunSkipBayless/status/854064588031221760
