We haven’t really had an especially lengthy Charles Barkley riff during the 2024-25 NBA season, but with the calendar flipping to 2025, Barkley finally found something that got him fired up: Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick. Recently, during our latest cycle of people freaking out about NBA television ratings, noted former media member Redick cited a lack of “storytelling” and “celebrating the game” as problems the league is facing, and went on to say that “If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product.”
The comments weren’t specifically directed towards anyone, but Jason McIntyre of The Herd expressed that these comments lined up with his criticisms of “Inside the NBA.” Well, word got back to Barkley about this, and despite the fact that “Inside” was trying to go through highlights of a game between the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves, he decided to turn his attention to Redick.
“Y’all heard JJ Redick said something about me?” Barkley asked the desk. “JJ, you better calm down, cause when you come for the king, you better not miss … He said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got. Yeah, us, like we’re out there jacking up 100 threes a night … JJ, you come for the king, you best not miss, cause I can get you, brother. Remember, I got your Lakers games. You can’t hide them flaws they got. You just a dead man walking — they got rid of Frank Vogel who did a good job, they got rid of Darvin Ham who did a good job. You came out there thinking you were gonna change things with that same ugly girl you went on a date with.”
It is again worth mentioning that Redick never specifically identified the “Inside” guys as a problem, even if McIntyre turned this into a critique of them (one that, in fairness, is not exactly uncommon). Barkley, meanwhile, continued to critique the Lakers and Redick, saying that the Lakers “stink” and sarcastically saying that Redick thought he could make things work in L.A. He also turned his attention to his issues with how the game is played.
“We’re the reason ratings are down,” Barkley said. “We’re the reason, like we’re playing. If me and Shaq played, the ratings would be down. But in fairness, if me and Shaq played, we’d be like the third and fourth best players on that Laker team right now … bums out there, but it’s Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham’s fault! I’m tired of these people jacking up 100 threes saying we’re the reason ratings are down. ‘Thirty seconds to another three-point shooting contest!’”
I’d bet that Redick is going to get asked about this the next time he talks to the media, in large part because this came from way out of left field. Again, these are all pretty common complaints about “Inside,” while Barkley’s critiques of the increase in three-point attempts is by no means unique. But still, Redick has never been shy about critiquing the media for how it discusses basketball, so unless he decides to totally ignore all of this, this has the potential to be a lengthy back-and-forth between the coach of the Lakers and the most prominent pundit in the game.