Charles Barkley is seeing what’s going on with Anthony Davis, and he doesn’t like it. And he’s calling on the league to intervene.
During TNT’s “NBA Tip-Off” show on Thursday, Barkley spoke out against Davis’ trade demand from the New Orleans Pelicans. He accused Davis and LeBron James of colluding to team up on the Los Angeles Lakers.
“We cannot have players and agents colluding to stack superteams. Adam Silver needs to say ‘Anthony Davis …’ … We can’t have players dictating who is going to play together,” Barkley said.
Here is the video:
Chuck goes off on Anthony Davis' trade request. pic.twitter.com/TUtvs5Kv0u
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 1, 2019
The fix has seemed to be in for a while on the situation, as Barkley said. Earlier this season, ahead of a game between the Lakers and Pelicans, LeBron said playing with Davis would be “amazing.” Small-market GMs were reportedly furious with the league for not enforcing tampering rules when James made the comments. LeBron and Davis then got together for dinner after the game.
James and Davis share an agent — Rich Paul of Klutch Sports — which makes it seem like they have coordinated things in an effort to get the two superstars together. There is talk that Davis is trying to discourage teams from trading for him by saying he will sign with the Lakers in 2020.
David Stern stepped in during the past to block a Chris Paul trade to the Lakers in 2011. This does seem to be a clear case of tampering and/or collusion. Adam Silver would be well within his rights to intervene.
