This is just about the toughest argument in the history of Sports, but Charles Barkley knows where he stands. The AZ Central asked Chuck about the careers of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, and while you'd think someone who played against Jordan in his prime would pick "His Airness", Barkley decided to throw a curveball....

On Tiger Woods missing the cut at the British Open:

"It bothers me right now that people make such a big deal out of that. He missed one other cut in a major, and that was after his dad died. So that doesn't really count. And to go 13 years and miss one cut in the majors has to be one of the most remakrable achievements out there. That's really impressive. And it shows you the stupidity of certain people who are questionging him. I'll bet every pro has missed 10 or more cuts. but it just shows you the double standard. Some of those guys have probably missed 25 cuts. This is really his first one, and when I talk to him, I'll tell him, 'Bro, you're probably down and have the red ass right now, but to go 13 years and only miss one cut, that's one of your major accomplishments. You're talking about the world's hardest golf courses, and to go 13 years and only miss one cut is remarkable."

On who's more impressive, Tiger or Michael Jordan:

"I think Tiger is more impressive. He has to play against 130 guys or more every week. He can't control what other people are doing. He can only do his thing. They're the two greatest athletes I've seen in my generation. For me, it's cool to have competed against Michael and watched Tiger in his prime."

That's a tough one to answer, and Charles makes a couple of great points, but I would call it a dead heat. Michael Jordan was flat out unbeatable from age 23 to 33 (minus the attempt at Baseball), and Tiger just turned 33 himself. My personal view is that Tiger is starting his decline at the same time as Jordan's, and now that he has an injury to wrestle with and a growing family, winning might not be everything. Still though, it's a great topic to debate.

Sir Charles Speaks (AZ Central)

There have been a ton of things for Charles Barkley to apologize for, and he acknowledges that, but apparently calling his producer a "pu**y" on live television isn't one of them. Barkley talked about the incident on the Dan Patrick show today, and here's what he had to say....

I mean, he does kind of have a point. I've always been amused by people who get upset by cursing, and the said transgression did take place at about 1am. I thought he should have apologized for being unprofessional, and demeaning a co-worker, but apparently I'm wrong about that.

Charles Barkley won't apologize for cursing; rips Twitter (Dan Patrick)

We all know that Charles Barkley is far from sane, and he even plays by a different set of rules, but this video might finally illustrate just how crazy he really is. After the Magic knocked out the Cavs on Saturday night, Charles not only called Kenny "numbnuts", but he called his producer a "pussy"....

The reaction from EJ is priceless, and I think Reggie asked the question we all want the answer to. Seriously, what is wrong with you Charles?

Charles Barley Let's Cat Get His Tongue (You Been Blinded)

Mike Polk is a bit of an Internet star, after creating a video he calls the "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video", and TNT actually tabbed him to make one for the Inside the NBA crew. Here is just about the funniest thing you've seen in quite some time....

Now that is entertainment! I think he could have done better on Chuck, but the Kenny part and the "Closer" ending, were both hilarious. Good stuff, but TNT....was it really necessary to bleep out "douchebag"?

'Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism' Video Creator Takes a Moment to Burn TNT (The Sporting Blog)

Ernie Johnson is one of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. Not only that, but he subscribes to the tenet that this site has survived on over the past three years. If you can't make fun of yourself, who can you make fun of?

Well, Ernie did just that when looking back at old footage of himself in a makeshift dunk contest, and a clothing company has even brought back his famous shirt from that night. Here's the background....

Great story, and the shirt you see above is not only available now, but a portion of proceeds even go to The Lymphoma Research Foundation (the disease EJ began battling in 2003).

Elevator Ernie (Homage Clothing)
Phenomenal Swag: 'Elevator' Ernie Johnson t-shirt (Ball Don't Lie)

Here we go again! Another gauntlet has been laid down involving Charles Barkley and a foot race, and this time it's from a colleague. New TBS Analyst, David Wells was working with Chip Caray and Ron Darling, when he decided to announce the challenge. The TNT crew talked about it last night after the Orlando-Boston game, and here is the video....

I dunno about that one, Chuck. You've been killing those Krispy Kremes as of late, and while Wells is certainly no Adonis, I think it might be a closer than you think. Plus it'd be on Wells turf, a Baseball diamond. Let's make it happen!

Saturday Night Live had their season finale last night, and mixed in among the Will Ferrell favorites was a hilarious sketch involving TNT Basketball. The sketch show mocked the advertisements on Inside The NBA for other TNT shows, with a show called "Mark", and here's the hilarious video....

I still think "40 Days in 40 Nights" is a huge undertaking, and one of the best produced Sports programs, but those ads do get pretty annoying. Very funny. Oh and Ferrell also did another Harry Caray impression on Weekend Update that you should check out, when they put it up on Hulu.

Charles Barkley has said a lot of controversial things in his days, but on Wednesday night the Chuckster went to far in the eyes of one lady. Chuck went so far as to say that the only thing woman could beat him at was cooking and cleaning, so a brave camerawoman challenged the analyst to a pushup contest. You can guess what happened....

Hahaha. Was that the worm he was doing there? Too funny. I also have no idea if that was George Clinton or not, but he's obviously a great trainer.

Video: Charles Barkley Loses to Woman in Push-up Contest (You Been Blinded)

I linked to part of this video (in the CAC), where Ron Artest says Brandon Roy is better than Kobe and Lebron, but there's an extra tidbit that Outside the Boxscore just pointed out. Artest, talking with Craig Sager, decided to shoot more venom at Charles Barkley, and even went so far as to call him "overrated" during his playing days....

Now we know that Artest doesn't necessarily like Barkley, saying he'd smack him in the face, but calling Barkley overrated is just insane. I mean the guy averaged 22, 12 and 4, during his career, and did it with little to no help on his team. Sure he had Moses Malone, Julius Erving and Mo Cheeks at one point, but they were only teammates for three years at most. Other than that he was saddled with the likes of Hersey Hawkins, Rick Mahorn, Manute Bol and Charles Shackleford, and still took them into the second round of the playoffs. Overrated my ass, Ron Ron.

I'm not sure if I'm breaking any news here, because last night's Playoff games were the first I've watched, but the Wolverine promo with Chuck and Kenny is hilarious. Check it out....

Too funny. The argument plays out like something you'd hear at Comic Con, and the claws at the end caught me completely off guard. If you're going to interrupt a game with a promo, this is the way to do it.

I myself have failed this challenge, so I knew ahead of time it was unlikely that Charles would complete it. Eating a piece of bread in thirty seconds is virtually impossible, but leave it to Chuck to try it out....

Too funny.

Charles Barkley FAILS the Chris Webber Bread Challenge, video (NESW Sports)

Esquire magazine put together a collection of sixty-three different males, that the average male should emulate. Among the Sports figures were Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Phelps, Dustin Pedroia, Derek Jeter, Shaquille O'Neal and Peyton Manning, but it was the inclusion of six announcers that caught my attention. Charles Barkley, Phil Simms, Troy Aikman, Lee Corso, Barry Melrose and Dick Vitale, all were on the list, and here's the mag's reasoning on each....

Charles Barkley: "For what he said to the cops."

Phil Simms: "...and Phil Simms both seemed like towheaded dicks when they won Super Bowls, but each has come into his own as a hardworking, insightful color man."

Troy Aikman: "The manhood of some men emerges over time. They don't seem to be men, and then suddenly — or slowly — they are."

Lee Corso, Barry Melrose, Dick Vitale: "They love their jobs, and as each of them will tell you: It's hard out there for a pimp."

You know what, that's not really that bad of an assessment. As annoying as you might find some of them, they all seem to love what they do, and that's really half the battle. I personally wouldn't call them "role models", but you can certainly learn from their work ethic.

The List of Men: Sixty-Six Guys to Emulate (Esquire)

Charles Barkley probably has no idea what Twitter is, but he apparently has an account. Well not exactly. TNT created a fake Barkley page and among his followers they listed Bernie Madoff, Martha Stewart, Nelson Mandela and Mike Vick....

Wow. That Vick one was pretty bad. "Watching Marley and Me"??? Man. A Charles Barkley Twitter page would actually be pretty entertaining. Let's keep that one going, TNT.

Charles Barkley Uses Twitter (Half Court Heave)

Charles Barkley got his sentenced reduced last week, but still had to head to "Tent City" for a three day period. That time began on Saturday, and Barkely decided to hold a press conference before he entered the facility. Here's the clip....

So you're not going to kill yourself? That's definitely a good thing. I also hope that Barkley doesn't go back into his mode of blaming the media for everything, but it looks like that won't be the case. Oh and why CNN would not air the parts when he talked about Barack Obama and Chris Brown, is beyond me.

You probably forgot that the "Haney Project", you know the Charles Barkley golf training show, debuted last night. Lucky for you, someone put the whole episode on YouTube. Here's the first six minutes or so....

The sheer ridiculousness of that swing is beyond belief, and made for a television show like this. It's definitely worth a watch, and you can check out the rest of the show in the three parts below.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Charles Barkley is a regular guest on the Dan Patrick Show, and today he came on to discuss the fact that he's going to have to spend five days in an Arizona jail. Here is the audio....

Pretty cut and dry. He doesn't seem nervous, understands why he's going, and doesn't know if he's going to be wearing pink. I'm officially making this the last post on the topic of his arrest.

Barkley On His Arrest (Dan Patrick)

I never understood why courts come up with a sentencing that makes someone only serve a day or so in jail, but I guess the law is the law. According to TMZ, Barkley just plead guilty to two counts of driving under the influence, and was subsequently sentenced to ten days in jail, five if he completes an alcohol program....

Barkley just pleaded guilty to 2 counts of driving under the influence and pleaded "responsible" to running a stop sign for the December 31st incident in Scottsdale.

Barkley was sentenced to 10 days in jail -- but will only do five if he completes an alcohol education program. Barkley was also fined $2,000.

Forget the amount of time Barkley was sentenced with for a minute, is $2,000 a standard fine in Arizona for a DUI? That seems rather small if you ask me (not that it ultimately matters). As for the sentence, people have done worse and have received less to no time in jail, but driving drunk is a serious crime and I think Barkley understands that.

Charles Barkley Is Going to Jail (TMZ)

In case you missed it, here is the full apology on Inside the NBA last night. It went as expected, and hopefully Chuck and TNT can move forward....

In his first sitdown with Sports Media since his New Year's arrest, Charles Barkley chose Dan Le Batard as his destination. Among the topics were the details surrounding the arrest, his endorsements and his drinking issues. From 790 The Ticket via SbB....

The crazy part of the whole interview isn't really those comments, but rather the fact that the talk was over 50 minutes long! That was just the first three minutes. Other than that, I can't really tell a grown man what to do with his life, so I just hope Charles can come to happy medium with his drinking and gambling. It's not an easy thing, but his job and well-being depends on it.

FYI- Barkley will be conducting another interview with Ernie Johnson before the start of Inside the NBA tonight.

The Dan Le Batard Show (790 The Ticket)
Barkley’s 1st Post-DUI Interview: “I Like To Drink” (Sports by Brooks)

A week ago, I passed along the info that TNT was bringing back Barkley, following his leave of absence, after the All-Star break. Well we have an official date now, and that will be this Thursday. Barkley will be back in studio with Ernie and Kenny, before the network airs their usual pair of games that night. Via TNT....

The TNT lineup includes the Emmy® award-winning studio show Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai. Inside the NBA will feature Ernie Johnson (host), Kenny Smith (analyst) and the return of Hall of Famer Charles Barkley (analyst). Barkley has been on a leave of absence from the show to deal with legal and personal issues following an incident on Dec. 31 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“From the beginning, Charles recognized that he used poor judgment. He took full responsibility and apologized for his actions,” said David Levy, President of Turner Sports. “We look forward to having him back in the studio, where Charles will once again share his opinions, insights and humor with colleagues Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith. Collectively, they entertain a huge group of loyal fans that tunes into the NBA on TNT each week.”

While there's no word on if he'll do another sitdown with Ernie Johnson like the one following his gambling issue, it's good to hear that Chuck will be heading back to work. TNT showed how great of an organization they are, in the way they handled this, and hopefully it will be the last time Barkley has to take a leave of absence.

(HT: First Cuts)