The 2025 NCAA Tournament is set to take place in San Antonio for the Final Four on Saturday. Unfortunately for some local sports fans, Charles Barkley—a longtime rival of the city—will be prominently featured on Capital One’s promotional blimp, which has become a staple for the event. Last year in Arizona, Capital One debuted a blimp showcasing a large image of Barkley, and this year has continued the trend.
Recently, images surfaced showing the blimp featuring Barkley’s face alongside another blimp with Magic Johnson’s likeness, both soaring over San Antonio leading up to the Final Four games.
Spotted in San Antonio already via Reddit – The Charles Barkley Blimp pic.twitter.com/qvn4OjiEjJ
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) March 31, 2025
Barkley has a history of disparaging remarks about San Antonio, criticizing its residents for over a decade. He has particularly focused on their weight, once describing the women of San Antonio as a “gold mine for Weight Watchers,” among various other jabs. For those interested, there’s an eight-minute compilation of Barkley’s jokes about the city over the years, which barely scratches the surface of his recent comments.
As the blimp makes its presence known in the San Antonio sky, local reactions have not been overly enthusiastic, especially considering Barkley’s previous insults. Whether Barkley will attempt to mend fences with San Antonio sports fans during his studio coverage of the Final Four for CBS remains to be seen; however, given his track record, this seems unlikely.
this is apparently flying over san antonio for the final four and i am losing it
— Bill DiFilippo (@billdifilippo.bsky.social) March 31, 2025 at 9:16 AM
