NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley insists all professional sports leagues should make it mandatory for players to be vaccinated if they want to play.
The fired-up 58-year-old TNT basketball was typically forthright as he hit out at those who refuse to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
'Can you imagine if one of these guys that are not vaccinated, if they get one of these players' kids, wives, girlfriends, moms and dads sick and they die over some unnecessary conspiracy bulls***?
'I think that would be tragic,' he told CNBC.
NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, 58, thinks all professional sports leagues should make it mandatory for players to get the vaccine in order to participate
Barkley likened playing in a professional sports league to having a corporate job.
He said: 'There's s*** you can't do at work and there's s*** that you have to do at work. So every workplace has rules and I think one of the rules (should be) that guys have to be vaccinated.'
Up to 80 per cent of NFL players, 90 per cent of NBA players and 85 per cent of MLB players have had at least one shot.
Barkley assured 'yes, I'm vaccinated,' and made his comments after a surge in Covid cases broke out across America due to the Delta variant.
Kent Bazemore of the Golden State Warriors said 'no sir' to the vaccine during a video conference with reporters back in March
'Everybody should be vaccinated. Period.
'The only people who are not vaccinated are just a**holes,' he added.
But his views are not shared by all athletes in US professional sport, with several stars speaking out about their refusal to get vaccinated.
The NBA's Golden State Warriors shooting guard Andrew Wiggins said: 'I don't really see myself getting it any time soon, unless I'm forced to somehow.'
