Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal didn’t have the best of times during NBA All-Star weekend in Salt Lake City. The two slammed the city during Sunday night’s broadcast, which didn’t exactly sit well with one lawmaker in Utah.
Charles Barkely and Shaquille O’ Neal could be in trouble
Clearly just joking around, Shaq and Chuck both took their respective digs at Salt Lake City.
“These people are going to heaven,” Barkley said on the TNT broadcast. “Ain’t nothing to do in this boring a– city.”
Shaq responded by saying “I never ate so much room service in my life.”
Barkley further explained, “you can’t smoke, can’t drink, these people are going to heaven.”
It was the first time Salt Lake City hosted the NBA All-Star Game since 1993, and it sounds like Shaq and Barkley wouldn’t mind another 30-year hiatus from the city hosting the festivities. State Senator Nate Blouin of Salt Lake didn’t exactly appreciate what the two Hall of Famers had to say about his city.
“Super disappointing take,” State Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake, tweeted. “Do better Shaq and Charles! Bet y’all were just cooped up in the all star VIP areas and didn’t even get into the city, and are just perpetuating a reputation we’re working hard to change.”
Senator Blouin may be right in saying that Shaq and Barkley were too busy to “get into the city” to experience it, but based on their assessment, they may not have had much to do even if they did. Salt Lake City, or Utah in general, isn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think of having a night on the town or a spot that breeds NBA culture.
