NBA Hall of Famer and television analyst Charles Barkley is denying a Twitter rumor which suggested that he gave tickets to Auburn quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton for Wednesday’s Lakers-Suns game in Phoenix.
Jim Dunaway, a television and radio personality in Birmingham, Ala., started the controversy with a tweet from the game that read, “Hanging at the Lakers-Suns … Pugh and most Auburn players in upper deck … Cam in lower bowl. Thanks Barkley for the tix.”
The resulting waves cast by Dunaway’s tweet led Barkley to address and deny the rumors during halftime of the Dallas Mavericks-Oklahoma City Thunder game.
“I did not give Cam Newton tickets to the game,” said Barkley, who denies ever meeting the quarterback and fellow Auburn alum.
Dunaway has since tweeted that he was thanking Barkley for his tickets and not suggesting in any way that Barkley or Newton had violated any NCAA sanctions.
Never one to be soft spoken, Sir Charles added, “If [Newton] would have called me, I would have gotten him tickets to the game. The guy won the Heisman Trophy and he’s one of the greatest jocks I’ve ever seen come out of Auburn. He’s right after me and Bo Jackson.”
Barkley joked, “I would have put him in the locker room if he had asked.”
