Charles Barkley isn’t backing down!
NBA Cavaliers star, LeBron James, and former NBA All Star and Inside the NBA analyst, Charles Barkley has been going back-and-forth ever since Barkley called James “whiny”. James fired back at Barkley’s critical commentary calling him a “hater”, and Barkley isn’t keeping quiet:
“I stick by what I said,” said Barkley. “He was all whiny and everything last week, so I’m good, man. Listen, If I’m going to be straightforward like I always try to be, I know guys are going to try to come back at me sometimes, so I’m good. He got personal, but like I said, I’m never going to get personal on an NBA player. All my criticism and critiques are always just about basketball, and I’m going to keep doing what I do.
“Clearly, he had done his homework on some screw-ups I’ve had in my life. … Clearly, he Googled me and found out some things, because I think he was young when I was playing, so he clearly Googled me. So, I appreciate that. But listen, man, I’m not going to get upset that somebody set something bad about me. I’m not like 12 years old. Like I said, my initial criticism was fair, and I’m good with that.
“I think when you don’t like the message, you just kill the messenger. Some of the things he said about me are correct. That still does not make my message incorrect. I thought he was really whiny and complaining the last couple weeks talking about how he got no help. I’m like, ‘Dude, you just won the championship and it’s the middle of the season, and you’re just bashing your teammates.’ I think that wasn’t right.
“You keep saying, ‘We’re not in it, we’re not that good,’ and I’m like, ‘Dude, y’all are the reigning defending NBA champs,’ and I appreciate Tristan Thompson actually having the stones to say something, but he’s the only one. The rest of them are just so intimidated. And anybody in that circle, they’re so intimidated, but I’m not intimidated at all.”
