Bill Russell flips off Charles Barkley at NBA Awards 2018
Charles Barkley thanked basketball Hall of Fame center Bill Russell at Monday night’s NBA Awards, and Russell responded by giving the TNT analyst the middle finger on live television.
Audience members clearly realized it, too, as they laughed amid the applause. Barkley was onstage with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to present Oscar Robertson with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and also paid tribute to several NBA legends when he got to Russell and thanked him. Russell later apologized for his gesture on Twitter, where he said flipping Barkley the bird was “pure instinct.”
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Russell, who played his entire career (1956-1969) with the Celtics, has made that gesture to other people previously, however. Here, he did it to a cameraman during a game while sitting beside Chauncey Billups, and Kevin Garnett posted the photo on Instagram.
Russell was an 11-time NBA champion, a 12-time All-Star and a five-time MVP. At last year’s NBA Awards, Russell told Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Dikembe Mutombo and David Robinson he could still “kick their ass” if he really tried.
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Fans on social media quickly started making jokes about it Russell’s middle finger toward Barkley:
Russell received the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
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