It took nearly three weeks for former Auburn basketball star [autotag]Charles Barkley[/autotag] to share his top candidate for the Auburn head coaching job.
In an interview on the daily streaming show “The Next Round” last month, Barkley told hosts Lance Taylor, Jim Dunaway and Ryan Brown that his choice would be [autotag]Deion Sanders[/autotag], although he would support whoever was named head coach.
“He’s gonna recruit like hell,” Barkley said of Sanders. “Deion (Sanders) is going to win wherever where he goes. If you have ever been around Deion Sanders. … I watched that “60 Minutes” interview about a month ago. … I have known Deion Sanders since college, that’s the way he is. He is going to win or be successful at anything he does.”
Now that Auburn has hired a head coach, Barkley did not wait nearly as long to share his opinion.
In an interview with AL.com’s Mark Heim, Barkley doubled down on his statement that he would support Freeze despite Sanders being his favorite candidate. When it came to his thoughts on Hugh Freeze, Barkley said Auburn fans need to support him despite his past.
“One thing about being in the ‘Bible Belt,’ there’s a lot of people around here who think they’ve never made a mistake in their life,” Barkley said. “I never pay attention to that noise, and that’s what it is, noise. Ain’t none of us perfect, but for some reason when you’re in the ‘Bible Belt,’ I saw a sign ‘don’t judge anyone.’ They judge everyone. You can’t pay that any attention. The guy’s our coach now. We have to support him.”
Over the summer, Barkley was also opinionated regarding the treatment of Bryan Harsin. During an interview on the same show in July, Barkley was quoted as saying that he wished Auburn boosters would “leave that man alone and do his job.” He continued to share his displeasure with Auburn’s handling of [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag]’s tenure with AL.com.
“I didn’t like the way Bryan Harsin was treated,” Barkley said. “They put him in a really awkward situation where he couldn’t be successful. Now, we have to get our stuff together to support the new coach 100%.”
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