Charles Barkley says there are no winners in the Jussie Smollett saga -- only losers -- and he feels TURRIBLE for the "real" victims of hate crimes whose stories will now be called into question.
"It's a really bad situation for everybody involved," Barkley told us in NYC ... "There's no winners. We're all losers."
Barkley has been ripping Smollett's tale about being attacked by homophobic racists for weeks -- even clowning the "Empire" actor as a liar on "Inside the NBA."
So, now that the 16 felony charges Smollett was facing for allegedly lying to police have been dropped -- we wondered if Barkley would back off Jussie.