For years, Charles Barkley has enjoyed taking jabs at TNT’s NBA broadcast counterparts at ESPN. In recent years, his frustration has focused on ESPN’s insistence on talking constantly about the Lakers and Warriors, even when they’ve been on the periphery of the playoff discussion, rather than focusing most of the conversation on the teams at the very top of the league.
Right now, the Lakers and Warriors are two of the hottest teams in the NBA, pushing to second and sixth respectively in the West after big trade deadline acquisitions, but Barkley still thinks ESPN has spent too much airtime discussing those two teams. His biggest problem is with Kendrick Perkins, who both Chuck and Shaq have enjoyed taking shots at over the years, after Perk proclaimed the Lakers have “saved the NBA season” by getting Luka Doncic and making a push to the 2-seed in the West.
On Thursday night, Barkley called Perkins an “idiot and a fool” but also went on a much broader rant about ESPN’s obsession with the Lakers, Warriors, and the never-ending LeBron-Jordan debate — while also joking about how they’re going to be part of the network next year.
Chuck: I saw a fool, idiot talking about how the Lakers saved the NBA. Yeah, he’s an idiot and a fool. What’s his name, Shaq?
Shaq: Which one you talkin about?
Chuck: Kendrick Perkins. He said that. First off, the Lakers are having a great two weeks. He said the Lakers saved the NBA season. That’s because the fools on the other network, who we’re gonna be working for next year, that’s all they talk about. Let me tell y’all something — and I want all the smoke. I don’t whistle when I walk by the graveyard or anything like that.
Hey man, the Lakers are doing great. Got a long way to go, the reason the season’s been going great for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Y’all just wanna talk about the Warriors and the Lakers. They’ve both been doing great, don’t get me wrong. If I turn out to be wrong, I got no problem with that. But y’all are idiots cause y’all talk about the Lakers and the Warriors all the time. The Cleveland Cavaliers won 12 straight games. The Oklahoma City got the MVP and they are on fire. Y’all are talkin’ about whose in second place. That’s why I get pissed. The Lakers are doing great, I don’t mind being wrong. The Warriors are doing great, but that’s cause you fools on the other network, which we’re gonna become fools next year cause we’re gonna be working on that network, but Oklahoma City and the Cavs have been ballin’ for six months. Y’all talking about teams that had two great weeks. Because they talk about the same stuff every single day…
Between that and this lame ass LeBron-Michael Jordan debate, which is lame and I’ve said it for years. The only people that talk about LeBron and Michael is people on television who got no talent to talk about anything else. I ain’t hanging onto the 90s. I’ve always said LeBron’s great and Michael’s great. But y’all talk about it all the time.
If nothing else, Chuck’s rant delighted Shaq, but he also speaks to frustrations a lot of fans have about the way the league is covered by the biggest shows, most of which are on ESPN. There’s certainly reasons for that, as anyone that works in the NBA content industry knows there are teams and players that always drive traffic and interest, but Barkley is right that it’s also the job to highlight the great stories beyond those. This year, as Barkley points out, the two best stories are the dominance of the Thunder and Cavs.
I do fully understand why right now there’d be plenty of discussion of the Lakers and Warriors as they both look the part of contenders of late and made the two biggest midseason additions. At the same time, saying the Lakers “saved the NBA” this season is pretty outrageous by Perk and Barkley is far from the first person this week to take issue with that take. Perk, unsurprisingly, didn’t appreciate Barkley’s comments and posted to Twitter in response.
