- The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Blunt-spoken NBA legend Charles Barkley is going after people who haven’t been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

“Yes, I’m vaccinated,” he said, according to a CNBC report on vaccination resistance in pro sports leagues. “Everybody should be vaccinated. Period.”

And he had choice words for those who aren’t, for whatever reason, and said he’d advocate the major sports leagues forcing their players to get the shots.

“The only people who are not vaccinated are just a—holes,” the 58-year-old former star of the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns said, going on to deride resistance as conspiracy-mongering.

“Can you imagine if one of these guys that are not vaccinated, if they get one of these players’ kids, wives, girlfriends, moms and dads sick and they die over some unnecessary conspiracy bulls—-,” Barkley says. “I think that would be tragic.”

He also said the sports leagues should force players to get vaccinated, explaining that it’s just like having a corporate job, CNBC reported, which would imply forcing everybody in the country.

“There’s s—- you can’t do at work and there’s s—- that have to do at work,” he says. “So every workplace has rules and I think one of the rules [should be] that guys have to be vaccinated.”

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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