Former NBA superstar Charles Barkley said that he agrees with the not guilty verdict handed out to George Zimmerman last week, but blasted the media for giving platform for racists to "vent" their ignorance, Fox News reported.
The 50-year-old Barkley said that jurors simply did not have enough evidence to convict the former neighborhood watch volunteer in the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
"Well I agree with the verdict," Barkley said. "I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn't have enough evidence to charge him. Something clearly went wrong that night - clearly something went wrong - and I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid, but if you looked at the case and you don't make it - there was some racial profiling, no question about it - but something happened that changed the dynamic of that night."
Barkley acknowledged that his take is "probably not a popular opinion among most people," but evidence pointed to an acquittal.
"I just feel bad because I don't like when race gets out in the media 'cuz I don't think the media has a 'pure heart,' as I call it," Barkley continued. "There are very few people who have a pure heart when it comes to race. Racism is wrong in any shape [or] form - there are a lot of black people who are racist, too. I think sometimes when people talk about race, they act like only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. And I don't like when it gets out there in the media because I don't think the media has clean hands."
Barkley also took at aim at the media for taking allowing their own biases come through in their coverage of the murder trial.
"The main thing I feel bad for is it gives every white person and black person who's racist a platform to vent their ignorance," he said. "That's the thing that bothered me the most. I watched this trail closely and I watched these people on television talking about it. A lot of these people have a hidden agenda. They want to have their racist views, whether they are white or black ... Their biases definitely come out. It was a bad situation. We all lost."
An 11 -time NBA All-Star, Barkley was named one of the 50 greatest players of all time. He was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. After retirement, he has won accolades as an NBA analyst, not to mention he, as always, has been extremely outspoken on numerous topical issues.
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