November 23, 2018; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Turner Sports sportscaster Charles Barkley before The Match: Tiger vs Phil golf match at Shadow Creek Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
For a man who is still struggling with analytics, you knew Charles Barkley was going to have a hard time wrapping his mind around cryptocurrency.
The “Inside the NBA” host Barkley had a funny moment during NBA playoff coverage this weekend. Barkley noticed TNT airing the Coinbase logo (the network having recently partnered with Coinbase on a sponsorship) and inquired about it.
“Coinbase, is that, like, a crypto?” asked Barkley.
“Google it,” quickly replied Barkley’s co-host Ernie Johnson.
Charles Barkley: “Coinbase.. is that a crypto?” pic.twitter.com/i1XNXOZHex
— hoops bot (@hoops_bot) April 18, 2022
To answer Barkley’s question here, Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange platform, not a cryptocurrency itself. But Barkley actually wasn’t too far off since some cryptocurrency platforms do have cryptocurrencies of their own (such as Crypto.com’s CRO coin).
Cryptocurrency is becoming more prevalent in the NBA space with crypto-based partnerships, jersey patches, and arena names springing up left and right. But Barkley does not sound like he is ready yet to embrace our new blockchain overlords (much like one of his other TNT co-hosts as well).