Things got way too real on Inside the NBA Tuesday night (May 8), as a conversation about DeMar DeRozan getting benched escalated into a shouting match between Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.
Chuck and Shaq get heated in a back-and-forth on coach-player relationships…#InsideTheNBA pic.twitter.com/ElQxwBV5s7
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 9, 2018
The argument began when Barkley said the Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey needed to repair his relationship with DeRozan after sitting the star guard late in a Game 3 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
Before Barkley could finish his point, O’Neal interrupted: “No, he doesn’t.”
O’Neal argued that DeRozan was benched for a reason and countered Barkley’s argument that a team can’t win a championship unless the coach and star player get along.
The benching was a great topic for discussion, but they didn’t wrestle with it much. Instead, the argument turned personal when O’Neal told Barkley, “You got babied, that’s why you ain’t win.”
“I didn’t have Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant carrying me up and down the court,” Barkley shot back.
Shaq’s response, while pointing to one of his four rings: “Google me, Chuck!”
In a nutshell, Barkley was trying to tell Shaq that you do need to have a great relationship between your head coach and best player. Shaq loudly disagreed. Shaq went on to admit on the air that he and Pat Riley didn’t have the best relationship and they went on to win the 2006 NBA championship.
Barkley went on to remind Shaq he wasn’t the best player on that Miami Heat team, it was Dwyane Wade. Shaq is right about one thing: NBA players shouldn’t be babied. Barkley is also right about a coach and his best players getting along to win.
Whose side are you on? Let us know over on Twitter and Facebook.
