Charles Barkley: "If We Gave Cam Newton $200K To Come To Auburn...Boy That Was A Good Investment"
Barkley: “We gave Cam Newton $200,000 to come to Auburn. Boy, that was a good investment. I wish my financial people had good investments like that.” [via]
I love it. I love all this talk out in the open about players getting paid and how much they got. Yeah Barkley was “joking.” Yesterday Shaq was “joking.” Ha ha ha. Only nobody is even close to joking and we all know it. And we all don’t care. I’ve been referencing Blue Chips a lot lately and there’s a reason it’s one of the best sports movies ever*, because that’s how we all imagine it actually works – bags of cash, cars, houses, tractors changing hands behind the scenes. Just don’t get caught and it’s all gravy. Don’t make someone drop the “allegedly” on the “Cam Newton and his dad got paid at Auburn” and we’ll all just keep on living happily ever after.
And of course, Barkley had to do what Barkley does and drop some truth on everyone.
Barkley: “I hate bringing up the race card, because there’s more important race stuff — like, the race stuff has something to do with it, number one. But I think that, you know, they rub it in pretty good, in fairness. But you know, there is a racial component, but I hate talking about that, because we as black people, we got way more important things where race is a factor than something silly like sports.
“Let me tell you something: as much as I love Cam Newton, if I played against Cam Newton, I’d put a hit on him. No question, because man, they rub it in pretty good. It’s fun to watch, I guess as a fan if you like Carolina … but they wouldn’t be a lot of fun to play against, because if you’re dabbing and Superman-ing and you’re kicking my butt, I’m gonna get the players together and say, ‘First guy to take him out, we gotta get rid of him’ ’cause they rub it in pretty good. And that has something to do with [Cam and the Panthers being polarizing] also.”
No doubt some people hate Cam because he’s black. There are people who hate everyone who is black, they’re called racists and you can find them in internet comment sections and Letters to the Editor sections. But it’s like the media won’t even acknowledge maybe there are other reasons people are annoyed by him? I mean I think those people are dumb too because Cam is the best, but just sayin, if you’re a huge fan of a team and Cam starts dancing and dabbing all over your face while he knocks you out of playoff contention, you might develop a little grudge for him.
*37 on Rotten Tomatoes is an absolute joke. A JOKE.
h/t Paul Pabst