It is almost impossible not to be entertained or have a soft spot in your heart for Charles Barkley. He makes Inside the NBA on TNT by far the most compelling and entertaining pre or post game show on any network for any major professional sport and he was one of the most gifted and unique talents in NBA history.
As we have all known for decades now, Chuck is not one to hold his toungue and he is definitely a good ole boy (meaning he waxes poetic about his era) when it comes to talking about the NBA players of today.
He did so once again on Wednesday, this time chiding today’s NBA players for not being able to play back to back games, this time at an SMU event.
Charles Barkley on extending season: "“I want to commend the NBA. You know, these poor babies can’t play back-to-back games." (cont).
— Eddie Sefko (@ESefko) September 20, 2017
Barkley continued: "Making $30-, $40-million a year. But we want to make it convenient for them … At $40M a year, we can’t stress ‘em out"
— Eddie Sefko (@ESefko) September 20, 2017
Barkley like many other former NBA players are stuck in the past and convinced that their era was far greater than today’s NBA game (false) and many, even someone as successful as Barkley post his NBA career are frankly jealous of the money that NBA players make these days which is obvious in these comments.
The fact of the matter is technology advances and modern medicine and awareness of how to properly train, treat and utilize professional athletes to obtain peak performance, efficiency and effectiveness has advanced greatly in the past 10 years and the NBA being the forward thinking league that it is is utilizing this information.
If team doctors and trainers would have known what they do now 20 years ago you would have seen Michael Jordan sit out games and maybe Charles Barkley would have been able to play in more than 70 games after the age of 27 or lasted in the league past 35…
Charles Barkley ripping players for not being able to play back to backs. He personally played a full 82 games in 1 out of his 16 seasons. pic.twitter.com/GJc0dT1wji
— Eric Fawcett (@EricFawcett_) September 21, 2017
Larry Bird was essentially out of the league by 35, Isiah Thomas was out of the league by 32, in comparison LeBron James turns 33 in December and he still is moving around like he is a 25-year-old.
Barkley is paid to be controversial and he and others in his generation will forever be Bah-Humbug about any newfangled technology or large-scale changes to the game they loved and they will always be wrong. NBA players aren’t less able to play back-to-backs than they were in the past, players, teams and the league are much smarter about how to do it effectively and when to avoid it. It is called evolution.
