Shaq goes to bat for LeBron James, says Barkley made it personal
Charles Barkley’s comments about LeBron James last week on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” resulted in a week-long story in the basketball world full of responses from both men and many others. So it’s no surprise that Chuck’s criticism of James was again a focal point at the start of the show on Thursday.
Prior to Thursday’s Hawks-Rockets game on TNT, “Inside the NBA” once again talked about the Barkley and LeBron matter. What stood out was the way Shaq defended LeBron by saying Barkley was “personal” in the criticism.
.@SHAQ & @TheJetonTNT discuss LeBron James & Charles Barkley's recent comments… pic.twitter.com/33oFGuBLP5
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 3, 2017
“Chuck made it personal when he said LeBron doesn’t like to compete,” Shaq said. “Everybody knows that when you win a championship and lose key players like (Matthew) Dellavedova and (Timofey) Mozgov, you have to regroup.”
Shaq then pointed out to fellow analyst Kenny Smith that regrouping is exactly what Smith’s Rockets did before winning their second of back-to-back championships in the mid-’90s by adding Clyde Drexler.
“Chuck asked the question: Do we want all the best players? You’re d— right we do. When I kick it out to a guy, I want him to be a D. Scott, a Glen Rice. When I got a guard going up against a (Russell) Westbrook, I want him to be GP,” Shaq said, referencing his former teammates Dennis Scott and Gary Payton. “So to answer your question: Do I want all the great players? Yes. It doesn’t matter if you have the highest-paid player. If you want to win championships or do you want to win games and lose in the conference finals? You have to spend money to make money.”
Barkley continued to contest whether or not he made his criticism personal by saying James does not want to compete, so it really came down to that. He and Shaq continued to argue about the Cavaliers’ roster and Shaq pointed out that what wins championships is a team’s supporting cast, not the star players.
Here’s what LeBron James said about “hater” Barkley during the week. And here was Barkley’s response.
