Charles Barkley probably had to walk to school up hill, in the snow, both ways to get to school, too.
Barkley, like so many others, forgets a few fundamental things. First of all, if LeBron was of age to join the NBA in the Barkley era, there is a good chance that we would never have known the depth and breadth of his talent, and an even better chance that we wouldn’t have him around for this long to enjoy the evolution of his game. The pugilistic physicality would have shortened his career, in all likelihood. He also appears to have forgotten that people didn’t love that version of the NBA. Despite enormous personalities such as him, Shaq, Jordan, Pippen, Olajuwon, and countless others, the NBA still took a back seat to the NFL and the MLB. Each year, the NBA sets new attendance records, new ratings records, merchandise sales records, and teams and players are making more money than ever before. Hey, if he had developed a three point shot reliably, Barkley may have extended his career and lightened some of the load from his…exploits…in Las Vegas.
Ever since the NBA moved from the physical, grinding, and slow style of play, TNT’s Charles Barkley has led the charge against the new space and pace, quick shooting, fast NBA game. Routinely saying things like “jump shooting teams don’t win titles” and admonishing bigs for stepping out on the floor and being complete players, Barkley has been the staunchest supporter in the NBA staying in the mid 90s instead of progressing. Continuously railing against analytics, constantly preaching getting to the rim and physical defense over the free-flowing exotic offenses we have now seems to be what TNT pays him to do. Charles Barkley is part of a bygone era of NBA style of play, and never had it been more apparent that he should join us in the new century than in the last 12 hours.
Last night, Barkley lamented LeBron’s recent overtures regarding “getting help” or his owner’s spending habits. Barkley was correct on several fronts. They do have the highest payroll in the NBA. They did acquiesce to The King’s decrees to bring back high priced options like JR Smith and Iman Shumpert. Gilbert an Griffin did open up the checkbook to move Wiggins for Love, a move that many suspect was a result, and contingency of 23 coming back home to Northeast Ohio. James is an amazing player, and the Cavaliers are defending champions. He nailed that. His rhetoric falls short and becomes unreasonable, however, when he discusses the means by which LeBron has accomplished those accolades.
Keep in mind, Barkley is a player who played with such a lack of civility and a stench of physicality, that Right Guard, a deodorant company, satirically and sarcastically cast him as their spokesperson, putting him in swank and high class situations to spew the company’s tag line at the end of each TV ad. “Anything less would be uncivilized”. His rough and tumble personality was echoed on the court. An elite level rebounder, Barkley used his stoutness to knock over, knock down, run through, and level opponents at any cost to gain a competitive advantage on the glass, the scoreboard, and in the opposition’s mental space. “Stretch four” was not only a position that didn’t exist, but at least late in his career, described a hypothetical exercise that Charles undoubtedly could not execute.
“Does he want all the good players? He don’t want to compete”, Barkley moaned as the discussion progressed. Barkley walked into the league and had superstars around him like Julius Erving and Moses Malone. As he developed into a star, those players left, and Charles was left to be The One in Philadelphia. How did he respond? Statistically, he was a monster. He posted 23 PPG to go with 11 RPG and 55% shooting. (Those statistics, by the way, are analytics. The very same type that got him into the HOF). From a team perspective, Philly failed to make the playoffs.
Charles Barkley, perhaps not wanting to compete, or wanting to play with all the good players, demanded a trade from Philly. That’s right. The same person that vilified LeBron James for leaving as a free agent, not under contract, and having played out the deal he was on, had himself demanded to play with different people via trade. One wonders that if LeBron’s exit of Cleveland for Miami was a “punk move” as Barkley so eloquently said, what then is demanding a trade?
The apparently unsatisfactory roster stayed behind in Philly, but legal and gambling troubles apparently did not. Several incidents, accurately enumerated by James, lingered to, at least to a degree, tarnish his legacy. Nobody could doubt the kind of player Barkley was. Nobody could take away his rebounds, points, FG%, or his enormous personality. So big in fact, that folks often forgot that he remained without a meaningful title run, a ring, and had been less than an exemplary human being outside of NBA arenas.
Barkley competed. That much is true. He competed right up to the point of being very buddy buddy with Michael Jordan as they prevented his Phoenix teams from rising, and cemented Barkley’s legacy as a Guy Without A Ring with the Larry O’Brien trophy serving as the eclipse, blocking out the glow of a potential world championship for Sir Charles.
Interestingly, Barkley’s next move was to surround himself with all the good players, as he traveled to Houston to chase a ring. He didn’t get one there, either, as an injury cut short his final season in the NBA.
We find that, in this new and strange NBA world, an enormous chunk of retired players now in the spotlight for one reason or another, push back aginst the basketball era we find ourselves in. A blind adherence to antiquated offenses, defenses based in brute force rather than scheme, and a “get to the rim at all costs” mentality was fine in the 1990s, but was it really better? Do we really want to live in a world where Mike D’Antoni clings to the foot of Nikola Jokic the way that Jeff Van Gundy wrapped onto Alonzo Mourning’s leg and held on for dear life? Did we really enjoy Cavalier teams led by Mike Fratello and Steve Colter using 22 seconds of each shot clock on their way to a 89-81 victory on a Friday night? We really miss Mark Jackson backing down for four seconds in the post so much, that we want to wish away enormous athletes like Channing Frye and Kevin Love playing free flowing games that not only demand versatility, but cultivate it as these wonders of modern biology and genetics do things that ought to be impossible?
Society changes. Politically, culturally, and in the minds and hearts of people all over the world. The turn of the 21st Century has brought awareness to racial issues and tensions, sensitivity to other cultures, a growing acceptance of marriage equality, and a new day that allows the conversation freely, openly, and in most cases, intellectually. The NBA game has evolved along with the social climate of the NBA. Players are no longer simply a commodity one cares about for a few hours on a Thursday night, and then not again until their next game. Social media has been the difference here. In a world so quickly summed up in 140 characters or a photo, comments like his are guaranteed to reach a large and educated audience quickly. In this way, his blatant refusal to join the modern cultural and NBA atmosphere is more evident. In his playing days, we may not have heard about his rant for 24 hours. Now, we know immediately, the backlash is fierce, and the media-consuming public is unforgiving. His short-sighted approach to how he discusses things and criticizes players indicates a lack of understanding that just because you can say something, doesn’t mean that you should say something. It appears that his lack of understanding of the way that things work in 2017 is not limited to simply what happens between the lines.
Leading the charge in political and social awareness is none other than the man that Barkley railed against. LeBron’s foundations pay for kids to go to college, they help the poor, and they help in giving a voice to parts of the population that have previously been kept silent.
In 2017, the world is different. The NBA game is different. It would be nice if Charles Barkley joined us to see how things turn out.
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