Charles Barkley Dishes on Zeke, Dirk and NBA players being babies

Charles Barkley, Basketball Hall of Famer, former NBA MVP and 11-time All-Star, was in Dallas this week at the Hilton Anatole Hotel as part of the PwC SMU Athletic Forum luncheon series.

Barkley is one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players of All Time from his career with the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, but he may be better known as one of the personalities on the Emmy-winning studio Inside the NBA on TNT.

Fans who loyally tune in to Inside the NBA are well aware that Barkley is one to share his opinions on any and every thing and his media session prior to the luncheon saw Sir Charles dish on a variety of topics in his trademark unfiltered manner.




His admiration of Dirk Nowitzki and disdain for the super teams: “You know I’m not a fan of the super teams. One of the reasons I admire and respect Dirk Nowitzki was trying to win for a particular city. That’s why I think a lot of old guys really admire and respect Dirk. We’re not a fan of the super teams.”

On the current state of the NBA: “It’s unfortunate the way things are now. Everybody knew last year that it was going to be the Warriors and the Cavaliers in the finals and that the Warriors were going to win and it’s probably going to be that again. These guys don’t want to compete., they want to play together … and the thing that’s really gonna suck for the NBA this year is that everybody is going to spend all their time talking about where LeBron is going to go next year. We’ve been through this every year for the last few years, worrying about where those guys are going to go. It started with LeBron and Carmelo. I think it’s a diservice to the fans.”

On Dallas Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith, Jr.: “I think Dennis Smith is a stud. I picked him for Rookie of the Year … I love what the Mavs did drafting him.”

On NBA players and the back-to-back games: “I want to commend the NBA because you know these poor babies can’t play back-to-back games. You know they’re making $20, $30, $40 million a year, but we just want to make it convenient for them. That $40 or $50 million they’re making a year, you can’t stress them out. The private jets and four-star hotels are not enough, so I want to commend the NBA for making it so convenient for these poor babies. I’m angry at the NBA for not telling the guys, ‘we’re paying you $40 million, you can’t play basketball two days in a row?’ I think it’s a travesty and moving the start of the season up is a joke to me .. the NBA caved in instead of making them play back-to-back games.”

On Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott: “I would tell him, ‘You’re a young kid who’s a stud. We don’t get the luxury of being like normal people. We don’t get a chance to grow up normal. Being a famous person is not like being a normal person. You can take your time growing up as a normal person. You can make mistakes and nobody hears about it. We don’t have that luxury. I take what he did very serious. I have a daughter. You can’t ever put your hand on women. That being said, we don’t get the luxury of being 22 and doing stupid things. It’s going to be on Fox News and ESPN. Every mistake you make is going to be in the limelight. Get some good friends. You got to have good friends. A lot of those people around you aren’t your friends. They are there because you pay the bills and buy them dinner every night.”

On social media: “I do no social media. I hate social media. I would never do social media.”

To watch the entire press conference, visit here.

 

 




 

 

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