It hasn’t been too difficult to notice LeBron James’ frustration levels rising rapidly over the past few weeks as he has officially endured his first losing month in years.
LeBron has made numerous public comments about needing a third play maker and needing more help on his roster in order to be able to compete for an NBA title once again this season.
While you empathize with his frustration with the lack of experience at back up point guard, you can also understand how that sort of attitude could bother some around the league or around the game as the Cavaliers have the highest payroll in NBA history and General Manager David Griffin has done an incredible job rebuilding a championship caliber roster around LeBron James.
One guy who has had enough of LeBron’s “whining” as he terms it is none other than the most outspoken analyst in the NBA, I’m talking about Charles Barkley of course.
Barkley has always been critical of LeBron’s decisions including leaving for Miami, maintaining close friendships with some of his fiercest competitors, flopping and now saying that his comments about the Cavaliers roster are “whiny and inappropriate.”
Here is Chuck on Inside the NBA on TNT a few days ago…
LeBron was asked by reporters about Barkley’s statements on Monday and after initially blowing them off for the most part to reporters on tape, he went over to ESPN Reporter Dave McMenamin and let Barkley have it…
“I’m not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that,” James told ESPN. “I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said, ‘I’m not a role model.’ I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying. All I’ve done for my entire career is represent the NBA the right way. Fourteen years, never got in trouble. Respected the game. Print that.”
He followed that up with a response to Barkley’s constant disapproval of his relationship with other players and how that didn’t happen in Barkley’s day:
“Go watch the ’93 Finals when John Paxson hit the shot,” James said. “Barkley and Jordan were laughing and joking with each other during one of the games while somebody’s shooting a free throw. In the Finals. But, oh, nobody were friends back then.”
Although I agree on some level with Barkley’s thoughts on LeBron being a little whiny about his roster that won a title just last season, he has always competed and everything he said about Barkley, although harsh, was brutally honest and 100 percent accurate.
I guess it’s not a good idea to step up to the King and his throne off the court either, Chuck should pay heed to the old adage, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…
