Charles Barkley: 20 Percent of NBA Fans Should Be Shot

The current TNT Sports NBA analyst told CBS Sports' Jim Rome that he wishes the worst 20 percent of NBA fans could be eliminated.

Fans man. They love their team and their player. They don't want to hear any criticisms. They just want you to be 100 percent for their team period, Barkley said on Jim Rome's radio show. I think it's only a small faction. I think 80 percent are great. Twenty percent, I wish you could take them out back and just shoot them.

Rome gave Barkley an opportunity to back off his controversial comments, but in typical Barkley fashion he held strong.

No, I meant that Jim, he said. Eighty percent of the fans are fantastic. But 20 percent of them are so mean-spirited and say the most nasty things to you, because they know you can't grab them.

These comments shouldn't come as any surprise to those that are familiar with the controversial Hall of Famer. Barkley was frequently a source of controversy during his playing career, including saying in 1993 that athletes shouldn't be role models, and has continued that level of openness and bravado since retiring in 2000.

He was also recently embroiled in controversy when he said his endorsement deal with Weight Watchers was a scam, but later clarified that getting paid to lose money was the scam and not Weight Watchers.