Charles Barkley fans know that you can’t actually follow the basketball legend on social media. That’s because he hates it. Despite being featured in an early SXSW session on Friday about staying relevant in the digital age, Barkley explained why he chooses to do so without social media.
Barkley, who had somehow never been to Austin before Friday, explained that he “doesn’t want to give losers power.” As a public figure for all of his adult life, he realizes now that, as a TV personality, half the population is going to hate whatever he has to say. He even tells his daughter to just try to stay off Facebook and said his advice for young athletes would be to do the same.
However, the Hall of Famer made it clear that he’s not “anti-technology.” It’s just that social media gives mean-spirited people an upper hand. Of course, being a public figure, he’s learned to not take things personally, but he wants young athletes to learn that to. He can’t understand why Kevin Durant or Colin Kaepernick would have conflicts with random people on Twitter.
At some point of his career, Barkley decided that he couldn’t please everyone, “So, I’ll just be me.”
Barkley had some other words of advice, being social media use. He suggested that people just take life too seriously. There’s so much going on beyond our control and people just need to be able to take a joke.
The conversation with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch covered a wide range of other topics, from actual basketball talk to what Barkley’s DVR is stuffed with. (He really likes Suits, by the way.) But Barkley got really emotional while talking about Civil Rights, which is very important to him. He said that one regret in his life was never meeting Nelson Mandela, so he plans on going to South Africa when he retires from television.
Also, Barkley was asked about being friends with Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong. That brought up the discussion of PED users in the baseball Hall of Fame. Some might be surprised, but he actually supports that. He called it “unfair to penalize five guys” because they were good and used steroids. Deitsch was taken aback by that, but Barkley insisted, adding that they could put an asterisk on the plaques.
image by Daniel S Levine
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