In an interview with WBRC-TV in Birmingham last week, Charles Barkley said he has always ignored Confederate statues and that most black people probably haven't thought about them "a day in their life." He said the black community needs to worry about more important issues like education and crime.



"That's wasted energy," the NBA legend said.



"I'm not going to waste my time screaming at a neo-Nazi who is going to hate me no matter what. And I'm not going to waste my time worrying about these statues," Barkley said.



"I've always ignored them," Barkley said of the Confederate statues. "I'm 54 years old. I've never thought about those statues a day in my life. I think if you ask most black people, to be honest, they ain’t thought a day in their life about those stupid statues."



"What we as black people need to do is we need to worry about our education. We need to stop killing each other. We need to try to find a way to have more economic opportunity in things like that," he said.