<p>NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley thinks the NCAA needs to cancel the annual March Madness basketball tournaments altogether as a result of the COVID-19 (aka coronavirus) outbreak. The NCAA announced on Wednesday night that <a href="https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/ncaa-tournament-to-be-held-without-fans-due-to-coronavirus-news.106061.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">both the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s tournaments will be played without fans in attendance</a>, but Barkley thinks they need to take things a step further.</p>
<p>During a call to ESPN&#8217;s &#8220;Get Up&#8221; on Thursday morning, Chuck explained,<em> &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna say this and I&#8217;m probably gonna get in trouble because I work for Turner and March Madness and CBS&#8230; Turner Sports and CBS need to close down March Madness, man.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/_/status/1238087631579295745" rel="nofollow noopener">https://twitter.com/_/status/1238087631579295745</a>
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<p>Barkley continued:</p>
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<p><em>&#8220;Even if there&#8217;s no fans in the stadium, you can&#8217;t have these players breathing on each other for 2 weeks, even if they stay at a hotel, they&#8217;re going to be at different cities around the country.&#8221;</em></p>
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<p><em>&#8220;I hate to say it and I probably shouldn&#8217;t say it because I work for CBS, but I think we&#8217;re gonna have to shut down March Madness until we know more.&#8221;</em></p>
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<p><em>&#8220;I know these kids want to play. Think about it, these kids are sweating, breathing, leaning on each other &#8230; that&#8217;s crazy! Even if you lose, you go back home, you don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve got the virus for a week or two.&#8221;</em></p>
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<p>The NCAA has not yet announced a definitive plan for the tournament, and as of now the conference tournaments are still scheduled to take place as planned. However, with the NBA suspending their season, it&#8217;s tough to envision a scenario where the NCAA allows college players, coaches and staff to continue playing, and travelling, throughout the country.</p>
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<h6><em>Streeter Lecka/Getty Images</em></h6>
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