Charles Barkley Defends Wayne Gretzky From Canadian "Fools"

Poor Wayne Gretzky has been caught in the middle of this whole kerfuffle between the United States and Canada over who's tariff-ing who, and Charles Barkley wants you fools north of the border to knock it off.

Gretzky has gotten some heat in his homeland because of the fact that he;s friends with US President Donald Trump, the same US President Donald Trump who has been promising to tariff Canada and Mexico if they don't get their acts together when it comes to tightening up the border.

The Great One even heard it from fans after he appeared at the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship in Boston last month to serve as Canada's honorary captain.

Well, enough is enough according to the Round Mound of Rebound. He wants them to lay off the Great One.

Chuck and the Inside The NBA crew were talking about sports records and Barkley brought up Gretzky — who is also an analyst for TNT — and his various records.

"That’s crazy how great Gretzky is," Barkley said, "and you got them fools up in Canada giving ‘The Great One’ a hard time. I went off on them today on the podcast —I was in that mood today — Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player ever. He’s the nicest person.

"I know, but the fools up in Canada gave him a hard time because of the tariff with Trump and everything," he continued. "He has nothing to do with that. He played hockey. He’s the greatest hockey player ever. He got no control of what these fools do down here in our government."

Barkley is just out here handing out "fools" like it's one of Oprah's favorite things (and given her political endorsements lately, it might be).

Others including No. 4 Bobby Orr have jumped to Gretzky's defense, and it's really insane that anyone has to do that. Gretzky is a proud Canadian, and the fact that people have turned on him over something a buddy of his did says more about them than it does about him.