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After holding out for as long as he could, famously outspoken Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has joined social media.
During the February 29 episode of Inside the NBA, Barkley and the rest of the crew discussed the fact that he joined Instagram, with his official handle being @charleswbarkley.
At the time of this writing, Barkley is followed by more than 123,000 people, and follows just 18, among them being NBA on TNT, Capital One, DJ Khaled, Gayle King, UFC, Power Slap, Dana White, Ernie Johnson, Shaq, Kenny Smith, and his Redmont Vodka brand.
Charles Barkley is on Instagram.
"You gonna be sliding into people's DMs?"
"I don't even know what that means. You gotta teach me how to slide." pic.twitter.com/TTedVr5YpR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 1, 2024
As Shaq mentions, Chuck has long been one of those people who thought they were above social media. But as Barkley understandably puts it, it’s a business decision. And given how popular Barkley could likely become on social media, you certainly can’t blame him for trying to capitalize on it.
If you glance at Barkley’s Instagram, you can see that the business he’s trying to promote is the Redmont Distilling Company. Most of the posts on his page (there are six total at the time of this writing) are about the alcohol brand, of which Barkley is the majority owner.
Being the Majority Owner of the Redmont Distilling Company, in fact, is the first detail in Barkley’s Instagram bio, ahead of “King Charles on CNN” and “Inside the NBA on TNT”.
Currently, Instagram appears to be the only platform that Barkley has joined. While there is a TikTok account under the username @charleswbarkley, it has just 125 followers and no posts, likely meaning it is a copycat.
If you want to be the one to teach Charles Barkley how to slide into DMs, you can do so by messaging him at @charleswbarkley, as Instagram will allow you to sent one message to him before closing out access (unless he accepts the invite to chat).