In the back and forth exchange between Charles Barkley and LeBron James, the TNT analyst defended his comments claiming LeBron was whining when he told Cavs owner Dan Gilbert that he wanted Gilbert to spend more money on players.
In response to Barkley’s initial comments, LeBron unleashed a statement that highlighted some of the less than stellar moments in Barkley’s life and took offense that someone like Barkley was disrespecting his legacy with Barkley’s own skeletons from years past hurting his.
Talking to The Undefeated, Barkley defended his initial comments about LeBron and based on what he said, don’t expect them to be sharing Christmas cards anytime soon.
When asked if he and LeBron could make amends, Barkley told the following to The Undefeated.
“For what?” Barkley asked rhetorically Wednesday. “For tellin’ the truth? What am I supposed to say, ‘You’re the greatest player in the world’? You’ve got two All-Stars and you want me to feel sorry for you? Do you think Carmelo [Anthony] would be happy with two All-Stars? I think he’d be happy.”
“I thought my criticism was fair,” Barkley told The Undefeated. “So I don’t understand why he took it so personally. But you know what, I’m a big boy. I’m good.”
It’s a bit understandable for LeBron to eventually get fed up with statements like Barkley’s original statement. If it’s not Barkley, it’s Skip Bayless. If it’s not Bayless, it’s someone else. And while LeBron doesn’t want to “feed the trolls” by responding, everyone has a breaking point and it just so happened here.
At the same time, Sir Charles is no stranger to making controversial statements and taking criticism for those comments. Considering it’s only Wednesday, there’s a good chance Barkley will say something even more controversial by the end of the week. That’s what he does. Not saying he’s right 100% of the time or everything he says is fair and should be said, but he’s not afraid of getting close and sometimes crossing the line.
For the sake of both people, they are better off putting this behind them but I am assuming that will not happen anytime soon.
