“There was a report out today by some idiot, and I don’t know his name because I don’t blog at all, he accused me of breaking NCAA rules. That I gave Cam Newtown tickets to the Lakers game.... This guy is an idiot, I hope he doesn’t have any kids. Because if the parents are idiots, you follow the kids, the kids are going to be idiots too. But, I did not give Cam Newton tickets to the game.”
“First of all, if [Newton] had called me, I would have got him tickets to the game. The guy won a Heisman Trophy and he’s one of the greatest jocks I’ve ever seen at Auburn. He’s right after me and Bo Jackson. He’s right with Frank Thomas right now.
But listen, dude, you can’t just get on your blog, I don’t read that crap, but I had to respond to it publicly today, you can’t just come out and say what you want to. I did not get him tickets, I have never met Cam Newton, but if Cam Newton had called me I would have put him in the Laker locker room if he wanted to go.”
As said in the story below, it was not a blog but a tweet from a respected Birmingham journalist that started this whole thing, but we knew this is how it would go.
4: 07 pm: You’re going to hear about this when you tune in to TNT tonight — Charles Barkley is going to go off on a Lewis Black-like rant — so we want to give you the background, to help you understand what Barkley is talking about. As much as that is humanly possible.
Last night players from both the Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks were in attendance at the Lakers victory over the Suns in Phoenix (both teams are in town for next Monday’s BCS title game). Heisman trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton was there in the lower bowl and was interviewed both on the ESPN national broadcast and the KCAL 9 broadcast back to Los Angeles.
Remember that Barkley is an Auburn alum and former Suns player. We’ll let the always entertaining Sports by Brooks tell the story from there:During the game, prominent Birmingham TV personality and WJOX-FM radio host Jim Dunaway Tweeted, “Hanging at Lakers-Suns… Pugh and most Auburn players in upper deck…Cam in lower bowl. Thanks Barkley for the tix.”
That Tweet along with courtside interviews that Newton did during the telecast was part of a chain reaction on Twitter and message boards across the country of people wondering if Newton had indeed gotten special treatment at the game that might amount to an NCAA violation…
Barkley told Dan Patrick this morning that he did not provide tickets to Newton. On his radio and FSN/Direct TV show, Patrick said:
“I called (Charles) Barkley and asked him, ‘did you get Cam Newton the tickets for the Suns game?’
“Barkley said, ‘Tell those people who are writing this to kiss my ass. I did not get him those tickets. But if he wanted tickets I would’ve gotten them for him.’
“He (Barkley) said, ‘I’m going to mention more on this on TNT tonight. This bothers me that they’re trying to throw me in there. I didn’t have any contact with the kid.’”
Dunaway later tweeted he was thanking Barkley for getting his tickets, not that Barkley got Newton tickets.
Brooks checked with others at the game and learned the players from both teams were spread throughout the arena, both in the upper and lower bowls. Newton was one of the players in the lower bowl, but that was not some special treatment or gift no other player got.
Barkley will be talking about this tonight on TNT, probably blaming all that new-fangled technology — all of which streams beautifully on those T-Mobile 4G phones Barkley endorses — for what happened. As usual, the problem is not the technology but people.