Earlier this week, golf legend Greg Norman said he believes one of Tiger Woods’ problems with not being able to close out big tournaments is that he is intimidated by Rory McIlroy.   Tiger reacted the way you might expect — by making a joke about it and saying that you don’t have to be afraid of a guy like Ray Lewis popping you in golf because it’s an individual sport.   Charles Barkley wasn’t satisfied with that response, so naturally he had something to say about it.

“I would like for him to just blast Greg Norman,” Barkley said on ESPN Chicago’s Waddle and Silvy Show Thursday. “That situation gave everybody a chance to dump on you, and (Tiger) still tried to take the high road. I’m not a high road guy. I want him to come out and really blast Greg Norman. I wish he would go ballistic on Greg … I wish I could put some of my blackness in him … like toughness … (I’ve been) arrested eight times for fighting … just because I’m Charles Barkley, you can’t disrespect me … you just can’t say anything to me anytime you want to …”

Tough guy alert. Barkley loves talking smack and saying things that get him into trouble, so it’s no surprise he would have taken the opportunity to rip Norman and possibly even fight him. Tiger, on the other hand, treads more lightly than ever now that he is still in the process of trying to repair his image.   As far as “blackness” and “toughness” being used interchangeably, it’s probably best not to get into a ethical debate. We’ll just chalk it up to yet another instance of Charles being Charles.   Elite.