Charles Barkley, a sports analyst, made a joke about Cardi B’s halftime performance during Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday at Madison Square Garden. Barkley joked that he hopes ESPN fires him over the joke, saying he has six or seven years left on his contract and would love to get paid for the remainder of it without having to work.

Background

Barkley was referring to his reaction to Cardi B’s performance, saying ‘I don’t know if those are B’s. They might be Cardi D’s.’ He continued to joke about getting fired, saying ‘Come on, man. People can’t take a joke? They can kiss my ass.’ Barkley appears to genuinely enjoy his work on ‘Inside the NBA,’ which is serving as the studio show before, during, and after the NBA Finals on ABC for the first time.

ESPN licenses ‘Inside the NBA’ from TNT without editorial control, similar to the ‘Pat McAfee Show.’ Even if ESPN could fire Barkley, it wouldn’t, as he is a key part of the show’s success. The show has dramatically improved ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage, and Barkley remains the show’s biggest star.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.