Watch: Charles Barkley gets flipped off by NBA legend Bill Russell on live TV
Bill Russell has become to the NBA what Ronald Reagan was to the Republican Party in America in the years after he left office: a venerated elder statesman and symbolic figure of a golden age.
Except the Gipper never gave a freeway salute to Newt Gingrich at CPAC.
At the NBA Awards on TNT Monday night, Russell was in attendance, and as Charles Barkley set the stage for Oscar Robertson to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, the camera followed Barkley’s speech as he called out all the greats of the game who had joined the gathering at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California.
And when Barkley got to the Celtics’ 11-time champion?
Well, that’s when the entire NBA social media landscape went up in a mushroom cloud.
(Note: As you might guess, the video and tweet below feature an obscene gesture.)
https://twitter.com/HeartofNBA/status/1011471350047956998
Not only did Russell flip off Barkley, but he claimed it was “pure instinct.”
“Sorry everyone, I forgot it was live TV & I can’t help myself whenever I see Charles it is pure instinct,” he tweeted, clipping his words to fit them in with all the hashtags, including “birdman.”
Sorry everyone, I forgot it was live TV & I can’t help myself whenever I see Charles it just is pure instinct. @NBAonTNT @NBA #birdman #NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/0zQLvWhuKi
— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) June 26, 2018
The awards show has courted a bit of controversy from fans, as moving the announcement of the league’s Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, Rookie of the Year and so forth from midway through the playoffs to after the Finals and draft takes the discussion away from a time when the league’s interest level is at its highest.
In 1993, Barkley was announced as the MVP that year in May.
In June, Michael Jordan dismantled Barkley and his Phoenix Suns, seeming to take out his frustration at being snubbed for the award on Sir Charles and powering the Chicago Bulls to the third title in their first three-peat.
In 1997, Karl Malone got the same nod from the MVP voters, and in the Finals that year, Malone melted down in Game 1 at the free throw line after Scottie Pippen destroyed him with his “Mailman don’t deliver on Sunday” taunt. Jordan and the Bulls went on to win the series and their second of three in a row in their second three-peat.
This year, the timing was so bad that any hope we may have had for LeBron James doing the same thing to James Harden, besides being scotched by the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, would have been pure speculation even as the Rockets and Cavaliers faced off in that theoretical callback to the Jordan years.
And Dwane Casey, who was named Coach of the Year after guiding the Toronto Raptors to a franchise-record 59 wins, wouldn’t be in the awkward position of accepting the award while head coach of the Detroit Pistons, who hired him after the Raptors fired Casey for his team surrendering to the Cavs like there was a plate of cheese waiting for them after Game 4 of the East semis.
The awards themselves drew plenty of fan ire, but one fan summed it up best:
https://twitter.com/playboi_cardo/status/1011464265406996481
Lou Williams won Sixth Man of the Year despite playing more minutes at point guard for the Clippers than Austin Rivers.
James Harden won MVP in a year when LeBron had one of his best statistical seasons while carrying a G-League team to 50 wins and eventually the NBA Finals.
The Coach of the Year got fired.
And the Rookie of the Year, Ben Simmons, was a guy in his second season in the league. (He missed his draft year due to injury.)
Honestly, if Bill Russell should’ve flipped off anyone, it’s the stooges in the NBA media who vote for this stuff. At least they got Victor Oladipo right for Most Improved Player.
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