He’s a Primetime talk show frontman now. So Charles Barkley is showing a fair degree of sophistication. When the first guest of the new CNN show, King Charles lavished Gayle King with a compliment, Chuck stepped in. He took a jab at the guest, at his co-host, and the style watchdogs to come out on the top.

Sir Charles is a bit of a fashionista himself. Before he was leading a talk show, he was rating the styles of some of the biggest NBA players.

Charles Barkley stays fashionable on new show

King Charles premiered on CNN tonight with some fanfare. Gayle King and Charles Barkley welcomed one of their first guests, rapper Fat Joe, to the show. After talking about certain indulgences like lobster and caviar that are signature to the high-roller life, he passed a compliment to the veteran journalist.

“I love the bubblegum pink,” he referred to her bold pantsuit with the heels to match for the premiere. Barkley, salty about his same old charcoal suit not getting any compliments, swooped in. “It’s magenta.” Barkley insisted King was dressed in magenta. “That’s when you know you got money. You make up your own colors.”

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He went a step further, implying that she’d get mad if Fat Joe referred to her outfit as any other color but magenta. The seasoned broadcaster rolled with it, accepting the rapper’s compliment. “Thank you, I appreciate it in my magenta suit.”

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Sir Charles has not changed up his style for his new talk show host persona. But he’s spent a fair bit of his NBA analyst days judging ‘non-magenta’ styles to his high standards.

Sir Charles, the Fashion Police

It was the ‘you had to be there’ moment when Jordan Clarkson rolled into the Crypto.com Arena in a pirate hat two weeks after Halloween. In his cozy TNT booth, Barkley clutched his figurative pearls and yelled, “What the hell was that?” 

Speaking of pearls, he wasn’t feeling Deandre Ayton’s in-game pearly look. And when James Harden wore a striped number, he had this pearl of wisdom. “That’s how you go to bed.”

He’s made fun of LeBron James’ fashion before. But on the day Clarkson channeled Jack Sparrow, Barkley said that’s how an NBA player should dress about James’ $4,000 Zegna jacket.

This warrants a fashion police-style segment exclusively for Barkley on King Charles. CNN, please make it happen.

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