That's Charles Barkley expressing his utter DISGUST for that 76ers vs. Timberwolves incident earlier this week ... saying a rear-naked choke doesn't necessarily make a "fight."

Instead, Barkley describes the whole thing as a "snuggle party" -- "there were two guys holding each other!"

The hilarious breakdown went down on "Inside the NBA" where Barkley argued with Ernie Johnson and Kenny "The Jet" Smith about the situation.

Both Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns have been suspended 2 games each for the incident while Ben Simmons, who applied the choke, didn't get suspended at all.

He did, however, get an offer to work on his MMA skills from former UFC and Bellator champ Eddie Alvarez! In fact, Eddie tells TMZ Sports he's already been in contact with Simmons and expects to start training him in the next few days!

As for Charles, dude knows a little something about NBA scraps ... back in his playing days, Chuck went head-to-head with giants like Shaquille O'Neal and Bill Laimbeer.