Charles Barkley Video: Watch Sir Charles Rip Magic Over Stan Van Gundy Leak

Unless there are some compulsive liars in the Orlando Magic's front office, Dwight Howard has a sticky situation on his hands.

That is, a situation he allegedly started.

During a shoot-around press conference on Thursday prior to Orlando's 80-96 loss to the Knicks, both head coach Stan Van Gundy and star Dwight Howard addressed rumors that Howard had asked management to fire Van Gundy.

Van Gundy corroborated the rumors, telling the media scrum, "I know he was [asking]. … I was told it was true by people in our management. So right from the top."

Howard interrupted the press conference by meandering over and slinging an arm around his coach's shoulders.

After Van Gundy left, Howard denied he ever asked such a thing, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Instead, he smirked and asked reporters, "I said that? Who did I say that to?"

In the midst of a discussion about the incredibly awkward press conference, Charles Barkley went "right for the jugular" on Thursday's edition of Inside the NBA. He came out swinging against the "scumbag" in the Magic organization who leaked a private conversation to Van Gundy.

Barkley said:

"

I have a serious problem with somebody in management—if they had a private conversation with Dwight Howard, it should've stayed private. They should not have shared it with Coach Van Gundy. I don't think that was the appropriate time to drop that bombshell, especially  on a game day.

Dwight Howard should not have tried to get his coach fired, but whoever the scumbag is—if it's true—who had a private conversation—had a private conversation with Dwight Howard—to leak that to Coach Van Gundy… . That's just a punk-ass move, in my opinion.

"

(Notice how Barkley never denied that Howard actually made the request.)

There's nothing more annoying than people who say something dumb and then attempt to put their feet in their mouths—and do a bad job of it—when it all blows up in their faces. Did Howard ask for Van Gundy to be fired? Probably. Barkley's right that it shouldn't have come up the way it did before Thursday's game, but it still happened.

Howard is now paying the price. Maybe he should be careful not to have private conversations with "scumbags" in the front office in the future.

Either that, or maybe he just shouldn't ask for his coach's head on a silver platter during a race toward the playoffs.