By now, most of you have heard the back-and-forth banter between NBA legend Charles Barkley and Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James.
James has recently been receiving support from a lot of personalities with regards to the feud, including Dwyane Wade, Chuck D, and Shannon Sharpe. Now, we can add Draymond Green to the list.
Green and James are obviously not the best of friends, but when he heard James going in on Barkley for calling out his willingness to compete, Green loved it, as he recently stated in his “Dray Day” podcast with Marcus Thornton II of San Jose Mercury News.
“I’m all for destroying Barkley,” Green said. “You know, Barkley talk a lot. A whole lot for a guy who has not won a championship. I think Shaq should talk about the champions. Kenny (Smith) should talk about the champions. Ernie (Johnson) can talk about the champions. When it comes time to speak about someone who has a championship, Barkley should be muted. You know how on “Around the Horn” where they just ice somebody out on the screen? They should be able to do that with Barkley any time the name of a champion come up.”
While Barkley’s comments about James seem to have been misguided (or maybe not guided at all), we can’t just brush aside his career and experience as an NBA player and analyst as Green did in his statement. Despite never winning a championship, “Sir Charles,” as Barkley is affectionately known, is an NBA Hall of Famer, former MVP, and has 11 All-NBA selections to his credit. Needless to say, Barkley could ball in his day.
For better or worse, Barkley’s raw opinions often fly straight from the hip; it’s one of the main reasons he has become so entertaining to watch. Whether you agree with Chuck or not, his place in NBA history is already etched in stone.
Just be careful when you come at The King, Charles – you might get burned.