Advertisement – story continues below

In a bombshell interview with WRBC-TV in his home state of Alabama, Charles Barkley — the outspoken former NBA star and current TNT analyst — said that he believed worrying about Confederate statues in the wake of the Charlottesville, Virginia, attack was “wasted energy.”

In the interview, he said that the African-American community needed to focus on economic opportunity, crime and education instead of tearing down monuments.

“I’m not going to waste my time worrying about these Confederate statues,” said Barkley, who is known for speaking his mind on cultural and political subjects far removed from the basketball court. “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to keep doing great things. I’m going to keep trying to make a difference, No. 1 in the black community because I’m black. But I’m also going to try to do good things in the world.

Advertisement – story continues below

“I’m not going to waste my time screaming at a neo-Nazi who’s going to hate me no matter what. And I’m not going to waste my time worrying about these statues. I’ve always ignored them.”

WATCH: Charles Barkley gives a unique and insightful view on the confederate statue issue http://pic.twitter.com/mmIUGZeBZ5

— The Rouser (@RouserNews) August 18, 2017

Barkley, who was born in Alabama and went to school at Auburn, said he’s hardly given the statues a thought — even though, as Newsmax points out, he once considered running for the governor’s seat in his home state.

Advertisement – story continues below

“I’m 54 years old. I’ve never thought about those statues a day in my life,” Barkley said. “If you ask most black people, they haven’t thought a day in their lives about those stupid statues.”

“What we as black people need to do is: we have to worry about getting our education,” he added. “We need to stop killing each other. We need to try to find ways to have more economic opportunity. Those things are important and significant.”

Barkley is pretty lucky he doesn’t work for ESPN, which is known to frown upon anything that the network suzerains deem insufficiently SJW-ish. He’s known to speak his mind, and speak his mind he certainly did.

Few media figures have gone rogue off of the narrative that the only way to atone for Charlottesville is to tear down every statue that we can take a bungee cord to. Barkley decided to question that belief — and likely made a lot of liberals furious in the process.

Advertisement – story continues below

Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter with your thoughts on what Charles Barkley had to say.