Charles Barkley echoes Coach K's opposition to North Carolina bathroom bill

By Sports Illustrated and SI Wire/Sports Illustrated
Published

Charles Barkley echoed Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s stance against North Carolina’s HB2 “bathroom bill.”

Barkley, working CBS’s NCAA tournament coverage on Thursday, took a moment between games to share his thoughts on the controversial law that discriminates against LGBT people by specifying they must use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate

Krzyzewski had spoken on the matter earlier in the day Thursday, with Duke playing in Greenville, S.C. — a first-round site that was originally meant to be Greensboro, N.C. before the NCAA decided to move the games due to HB2.

“No. 1, I really admire and respect coach Krzyzewski because he doesn’t have to do anything. He’s already a living legend. He’s got more money than he’s ever gonna spend, but I really appreciate him standing up for my gay friends,” Barkley said, “Now, my point, as a black man, I am against any form of discrimination whether you’re gay, Muslim, hispanic, Jewish, whatever, and, if people in position of power don’t support these people, they’re gonna be left in a lurch by themselves.

“All these other groups are getting to feel what black people feel like now. With the Muslim ban, they’re deporting these immigrants, white folks are actually getting an opportunity to feel what black people have always felt. Discrimination is wrong in any shape whatsoever.”

Krzyzewski, as well as North Carolina head coach Roy Williams (who said he was very “disappointed”), spoke openly in opposition to the law.

“They have the right to host it whether our state is smart enough to have it,” Krzyzewski said. “It shouldn't be a contest of one against another. It would be nice if our state got as smart and also would host not just basketball tournaments but concerts and other NCAA events. But maybe we'll get there in the next century, I don't know. We'll see.

"Look, it's a stupid thing. That's my political statement. If I was president or governor I'd get rid of it. And I'd back up my promises. As unusual as that might be. Anyway, I don't want to get too political.”