NBA analysts and former players Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith are used to breaking down what happens on the basketball court. Now, they're breaking down a bigger topic: race relations.
Smith published an open letter to Barkley, his co-analyst on TNT's "Inside the NBA," in USA Today on Wednesday, responding to Barkley's comments about the unrest and racial tension between citizens and police in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury decided last month not to charge police officer Darren Wilson, who is white, in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown, setting off a storm of reaction across the country.
The day after the decision was announced, Barkley spoke to WPEN 97.5 in Philadelphia, defending police officers and using a derogatory term for those who rioted and looted in the wake of the decision.
"We have to be really careful with the cops, because if it wasn't for the cops we would be living in the wild, wild west in our neighborhoods," he said. "We can't pick out certain incidentals that don't go our way and act like the cops are all bad. Do you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn't for the cops?"
On Tuesday, Barkley went on CNN and reiterated that statement, calling assertions that white police officers are out to shoot black people "ridiculous."
He also raised some eyebrows by saying that, at times, racial profiling is "right."
"We as black people, we have a lot of crooks. We can't just wait until something like (the Brown shooting) happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror," he said of people in black communities. "There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right."
Barkley also said that dialogue is needed, and that people shouldn't take sides solely based on race.
"We never discuss race in this country until something bad happens," he said.
He added that when that happens, it usually ends up with a "tribe mentality."
"Everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they are right or wrong," he said.
In his rebuttal, Smith began with a light tone before getting more serious, saying he found it interesting "how writers and media members view [Barkley's] insights in politics, and now race relations, with the same reverence as [Barkley's] insights in sports," prompting his response.
Smith provided the historical context of the civil rights movement in America, noting that Rosa Parks' segregation-era bus ride occurred just 59 years ago this month. "Some laws were initially made without us as equals in mind; that's just the facts," he wrote. "So the thought process that it's not for us or by us will unfortunately lead to distrust."
Smith went on to say: "When someone is in 'the struggle,' which many of our black communities are in, they are living with a lack of educational facilities, high unemployment and poor recreational facilities. The masses involved in 'the struggle' will react in several ways. They can overcome it, challenge it, live in it, or fall victim to it ... Here's an analogy: If you put 100 people on an island with no food, no water, no hope of a ship coming, then some will overcome it and be resourceful, some will live in it, others will panic and others will show horrific character, which is wrong. But not to understand that all alternatives are possible is wrong as well."
Smith wrote that he, too, was "disheartened" by the reports of rioting and looting, but that it would be foolish not to anticipate such a reaction due to the impact of "the struggle" he mentioned.
"It's about trust," Smith wrote. "Do I trust you to help me off the island? If so, do you have my best interests at heart? Do I trust that you will you send a ship or allow me access to build my own ship?
"And you were right Chuck, let's not discredit that there are great police officers in all neighborhoods, but let's not credit that we shouldn't have doubt."
Barkley and Smith continued their discussion Thursday night, devoting 10 minutes of TNT's pregame for the New York Knicks-Cleveland Cavaliers telecast to the topic.