Charles Barkley Criticized Kyrie Irving For Leaving The Cavs In An Attempt To Be ‘The Man’ In Boston

The overarching reason why Kyrie Irving wanted to leave Cleveland, at least according to a bevy of reports that popped up throughout the trade process, was that he wanted to be a team’s No. 1 option. That, through no fault of his own, was never going to happen with the Cavaliers as long as he was on the same team as LeBron James, so Irving requested a trade and eventually got sent to Boston.

For Charles Barkley, this is all incredibly silly. Prior to Cleveland and Boston facing off to start the 2017-18 season, Barkley commented on Irving’s decision to leave for a team where he would become “the man.”

Barkley thinks this is all very silly. This is because Irving was in a good situation in Cleveland, one where the Cavaliers were consistently winning and he was still getting his.

“I don’t understand this new generation of egos where … I never played with a guy like a Kobe or a LeBron where these guys can’t co-exist,” Barkley said. “What do you mean “I need to be the man”? First of all, we showed the stats, he’s averaging 25 points a game. Being the man, if he averaged 30 and he’s on a bad team, that’s irrelevant to me.”

Barkley repeated that he doesn’t understand the mentality of being “the man,” saying that he wants to “play with a guy like LeBron.” Additionally, Barkley criticized “this notion of ‘We’re winning, but…'” and how winning should be the No. 1 thing a player wants to do.

We always hear people say basketball is different now, but everyone is in the league to win games, so Barkley makes some good points here. Of course, he’s also the same guy who has railed against superteams in the past, which means Barkley wants players to try and win games, just not to the point that he has to fake being interested in the league up until the Cavs and Warriors meet up in the NBA Finals.