San Antonio Mayor Confronts Charles Barkley Over 'Skinny Women' Comments

After years of disparaging the women of San Antonio, NBA great Charles Barkley finally caught some heat from the city's mayor.

Before Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Wednesday, June 3, ESPN aired a montage of Barkley's comments about the Texas town.

"You know, I think it's a great city, but they do have some big ol' women down there," Barkley, 63, said in one clip. In another, Barkley said, "They ain't got no skinny women down there."

San Antonio mayor Gina Ortiz Jones joined the Inside the NBA panel on Wednesday, where she gave Barkley a taste of his own medicine.

"I learned a long time ago you can't teach courage, you can't teach class. And Mr. Barkley reminds us of that," Ortiz Jones, 45, said.

Cohost Shaquille O'Neal reveled in the diss, saying, "Get him, mayor! Get him!"

"Here I am, so glad to be back in your beautiful city," Barkley said. "I took a walk today, everybody was fantastic. They know I'm just joking around."

Ortiz Jones came with gifts, presenting Barkley with a batch of churros after he previously commented about the affinity women in San Antonio allegedly have for the fried treat.

"They be woofin' them churros," Barkley said on Inside the NBA in 2014. "Those big ol' women be eating them churros."

While handing over the box of churros to Barkley, Ortiz Jones made a crack about his recent weight loss, which has come partially thanks to GLP-1 medications.

"Chuck has lots of thoughts about the churros," she said. "We know he's on a diet, but we know he's not really on a diet. So here are the churros. Chucky churros."

Barkley chomped down on a churro in delight as the show went to commercial break.

The Hall of Famer showed off his noticeable weight loss when the 2025-26 NBA season tipped off back in October.

"I'm working out, too. You got to work out. You can't just take a shot," Barkley said.

In May 2023, Barkley revealed he had lost over 60 pounds in six months with the help of diet, exercise and medication.

"I started at 352 [pounds] and I'm down to 290," Barkley said during an appearance on ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show. "I'm starting to feel like a human being, not a fat ass anymore."

He added, "My doctor told me, she says, ‘There's a lot of fat young people. Ain't a lot of fat old people, they're all dead.'"

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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 10:46 AM.