National Basketball Association

Charles Barkley on former agent: 'I would blow his brains out'

Published Aug. 28, 2015 12:55 p.m. ET

foxsports

Well, this got heated quickly.

Charles Barkley made an appearance on Dan Patrick's radio show, and the two got into what was clearly a sore subject: Barkley's former agent, Lance Luchnick, who Barkley says stole money from him.

Apparently, the Hall of Fame player and current TNT analyst hasn't gotten over it. Not one bit.

"If I saw him today, I would blow his brains out. I hate that S.O.B.," said Barkley.

When Patrick gave him a lifeline, Barkley decided not to take it. After being asked if he would actually shoot him, here's what Sir Charles had to say: "I would if I had a gun. I would beat his ass down like a dog."

Here is the transcription of the full interaction, courtesy of SportsGrid.com:

DP: When you said you admitted on the show back in 2010 to accepting money at Auburn, that’s the money?

CB: From agents, not from Auburn. I borrowed money from agents. I have no regrets about it whatsoever. I needed stuff. I wanted stuff to do. You don’t have extra money and you can’t work. I really appreciate those agents ahead of me. Only mistake I made was I didn’t sign with one of these three agents. I signed with a scumbag agent. I don’t want to mention his name: [Lance Luchnick]. If I saw him today, I would blow his brains out. I hate that s.o.b.

DP: How did he take all your money?

CB: Back then — players are smarter now. Your agent got you a paycheck. He gave you an allowance and he “invested” the rest of your money and I was getting $15,000 a month allowance just to have fun with and I’m a 21-year-old kid. You can’t give me — how much did i say 15,000? I was getting 15,000 allowance that came the first of every month. I didn’t care — he said, ‘I’ll invest the rest, okay?’ After four years I was broke. Hadn’t paid taxes. I don’t want to mention his name, [Lance Luchnick].

DP: You don’t mean you would shoot him?

CB: I would if I had a gun. I would beat his ass down like a dog. That’s the worst thing you can do for somebody, dan, is steal from them. when you steal from somebody, you are saying to them I don’t respect how hard you worked for your money. When somebody steals from you, that’s what they’re saying. They’re breaking the law like people say they break the law. No. When somebody steals from you, they’re saying to you, ‘I don’t care how hard you work for your money, I want it.’ And Lance stole my money. He was a scumbag.

This isn't the first time we've heard of problems with Barkley and Luchnick. We can actually go all the way back almost 30 years to find the genesis of the problem. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about Barkley's troubles with Luchnick, though not with as much fervent detail, on June 20, 1988:

The 76ers' Charles Barkley says he's been "having a lot of problems" with his attorney, Lance Luchnick. Luchnick, speaking from his home in San Antonio, seemed startled by that revelation.

"That comes as a total surprise to me," Luchnick told the Daily News. ''I'm hoping what he means is, he feels a need to see what's going on. He's welcome to have the world look at his books. Everything done has been done honestly, and I've advised him myself that he should go over everything, that it would be in his own best interests."

Barkley said Friday he was in the process of having his finances audited by two firms, and that he was attempting to obtain his income tax returns for the last four years.

Luchnick had been suspended by the NBA Players Association at the time of that article because of, as the paper said, "controversy surrounding questionable payments to college players and coaches."

Barkley commented on Luchnick to ESPN back in 2007, too:

Lance [Luchnick] was the only agent who hadn't given me money while I was in school. When it came down to my final selection, [not offering money] worked in his favor. I thought he had been smart enough to know that I couldn't be bribed ... I chose him for the worst reason anybody could choose an agent -- write this down, kids -- because he was a good guy.

It all started with a conversation about student-athlete compensation. Things started to get dark once Barkley began talking about how he borrowed money from agents while at Auburn. Here is the video version, with the conversation in reference beginning at about the 12:45 mark: