Stephen Colbert cleared the air Tuesday about his COVID-19 grudge against Charles Barkley. (Watch the video below.)
“I got a beef with you,” the “Late Show” host told the “Inside the NBA” analyst, who appeared as a guest.
Colbert noted he had not seen Barkley in the flesh since “The Late Show” on March 10, 2020.
The host recalled that backstage, he offered to exchange elbow bumps with Barkley instead of a handshake, for safety. Barkley opted for the handshake and Colbert replayed the moment they greeted each other onstage.
“Two days later the entire country shuts down,” Colbert said. “You announce that you might have been exposed to Covid, meaning myself and my family can’t leave our house because we think we might have been exposed to Covid because I’ve been exposed to Covid by you. And we called you everyday for 11 days. And you never called us back. ... What the hell, Charles?”
Barkley explained he was stuck in a condo for 10 days waiting to get test results and had Angels star Mike Trout and fellow NBA great Patrick Ewing also hounding him.
King, who co-stars with Barkley on CNN’s “King Charles,” reminded her colleague that he could have called Colbert back and told him he had yet to receive the results.
“Couldn’t he have done that?” King said to the audience in a lighthearted shaming of Barkley.
Finally, the Round Mound of Rebound bounced a mea culpa Colbert’s way.
“I apologize for not calling you back,” Barkley said as the two reached out for a conciliatory handshake.
“See, we can shake hands now,” the retired hoops star gushed.
Colbert, ever the comedian, squeezed on hand sanitizer.
Fast-forward to 1:20 for the pandemic flashback:
For the record, Barkley announced he had tested negative for the virus later that March.
He set off the drama on March 12, a day after the NBA shut down amid player Rudy Gobert testing positive and the World Health Organization’s official declaration that the globe was in the grips of a pandemic. An under-the-weather Barkley called in sick to TNT and got tested.
“I’m just kind of in limbo right now. I’m hoping, I’m really hoping, it was just a bug,” Barkley said at the time.
Colbert was hoping the same thing.