Charles Barkley has hope for the city of San Francisco after saying during the transmission of the NBA stars game he met with Mayor Daniel Lurie.
The city was the host of the NBA stars game of 2025. Barkley had been in the case of the city due to its crime and homeless population. During the transmission, he expressed some optimism that the city would begin to clean.
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Chuck Global Stars Charles Barkley general manager observes during the presentations game of the NBA stars of 2025 at the Chase Center in San Francisco on February 16, 2025. (Cary Edmondson-Imagn images)
“Enjoying the people of San Francisco, especially the mayor. I met the mayor a couple of times. It has been tremendous, and I hope we can do something about the homeless population,” Barkley said during a game between the Shaquille O’Neal team and the Candace Parker team.
Barkley said last month that he would jump to the game because he was in San Francisco.
“It’s going to do the All-Star team,” Barkley said at that time. “I’m not going. I’m not going to that infested place of rats in San Francisco.”
Barkley responded to one of his colleagues by calling San Francisco “Beautiful”.
“San Francisco is not a beautiful city. Rats. Cats. All of you will not do me as San Francisco. No. No, no, no”
From left to right, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley are in the middle of the court to be honored during the NBA All-Star basketball game on Sunday, February 16, 2025 in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
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However, he was far from the first time he criticized San Francisco. Last year, the city started during the NBA alternative broadcast of the stars game, which took place in Indianapolis.
Barkley asked Reggie Miller what he would choose: playing in the cold in Indianapolis, where Miller spent his entire career in the 18 -year -old NBA, or “being close to a lot of homeless criminals in San Francisco.”
Golden State Warriors star, Draymond Green, called Barkley “Crazy” and said Barkley was not “welcome” in the city. Parker said: “We love San Francisco,” but Barkley offered a replica.
“No, we don’t do it,” he said. “… you can’t even walk there.”
He later suggested that you could walk around the city with a “bulletproof vest.”
The then president of the Host Committee of the then Bowl 50, Daniel Lurie, speaks during the Press Conference of the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on February 1, 2016. (Jerry lai-USA Today Sports)
Lurie has promised to make the streets of San Francisco safe again, build “enough homes to change our affordability” and address “our behavioral and behavioral health crisis.”
