Thursday on TNT’s “NBA Pregame,” analyst and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley reacted with strong words to Vice President Mike Pence criticizing the league and Nike for caving to communist China after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for the rights of protesters in Hong Kong.

Barkley said Pence “needs to shut the hell up” because “all American companies are doing business in China.”

“Vice President Pence needs to shut the hell up, number one,” stated Barkley. “All American companies are doing business in China. All American companies are doing business in China. I thought the criticism of Commissioner Silver and LeBron James was unfair.”

He continued, “Listen, Daryl Morey, who I like, … he can say whatever he wants to, but there are consequences. But I don’t understand why these holier-than-thou politicians, if they [are] so worried about China, why don’t they stop all the transactions with China? President Trump has been talking about and been arguing with tariffs for China for the last two years, but I think it’s unfair for them to do all their business in China, and just because this thing happened to try to make the NBA and our players look bad. All American companies do business in China, period.”

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