It seems like everyone in the basketball community has something to say about the feud between Charles Barkley and LeBron James. If you’ve missed it, Barkley doesn’t like that James asked for the Cavaliers to acquire a playmaker, which led to James responding by unloading on the Hall of Famer.
James’ response was incredible – he said “I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said, ‘I’m not a role model.’ I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying.” – but it has nothing on what Draymond Green had to say about Barkley. Green discussed the beef on his podcast for Uninterrupted with his co-host, Marcus Thompson II. Thompson brought the subject up, which led to Green going off. You can hear Green’s comments on the situation at the 13:40 mark.
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“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, which I have stated multiple times. I think Shaq should talk about the champions, Kenny should talk about the champions, Ernie can talk about the champs. But when it comes time to speak about someone who has a championship, Barkley should be muted. They should have some type of graphic up there where you can like .. you know how on Around the Horn where they just ice somebody out on the screen? They should be be able to do that with Barkley any time the name of a champion come up.”
Green isn’t the only person to use Barkley’s lack of rings to criticize his remarks on LeBron – Isiah Thomas said that Barkley can’t understand where LeBron is coming from when he asks for help. Additionally, Shaquille O’Neal told Barkley on NBA Tip-Off that “when you win a championship and you lose key players … you have to re-group” and that Barkley made this personal when he said that LeBron asking for talent shows he does not want to compete to win.
But Green also took it to a different level when he said he was rooting for LeBron to verbally destroy Barkley. After acknowledging that LeBron’s comments may have been a bit much and then considering that he’s been getting criticism from Barkley for years, Green understood LeBron’s comments a little better.
“When I heard that, I said ‘okay, kill him LeBron,'” Green said. “I like that. I like to see somebody destroy Charles Barkley like that. Then I stepped back and I said, ‘ok that’s a little too far, Bron.’ Then I thought about it again and I’m like, ‘that’s an accumulation of stuff, hey, may the best man win.’ And I think Bron won.”
Green doesn’t exactly have fond feelings on the Cavaliers – he said earlier this season that he wants to annihilate Cleveland in the Finals this year. But Green probably understands where LeBron is coming from better than most people, as his team made the ultimate commitment to winning a ring when it went out and signed Kevin Durant. It really is all about championships, and in Green’s eyes, Barkley’s lack of a ring means that he can never understand why.
(Via For the Win)
