Charles Barkley, a TNT analyst and former Houston Rockets player, has never been regarded as a big fan of LeBron James. Despite James being one of the league’s top players for the past decade, with numerous achievements that solidify his legacy, he has faced criticism for demanding a lot from his teams. During his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, James was known for pressuring the front office into making multiple trades, particularly for the 2016 season. At that time, Charles Barkley emerged as one of LeBron’s most vocal critics, as reported by ESPN. James even referred to Barkley as a “hater” and questioned Barkley’s actions during his own playing career, as well as his right to criticize James.
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This criticism continued after the Denver Nuggets swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Barkley claimed that the media should have focused on the historic sweep by the Nuggets instead of constantly covering James, who was facing retirement speculation and the end of his $97,000,000, 2-year deal.
LeBron James once called Charles Barkley a “hater”
The Cavaliers had won the 2015 NBA title. However, the Golden State Warriors responded by signing a certain Kevin Durant. This led to LeBron also demanding that the Cavaliers make some moves.
However, Barkley was not happy with his demands, claiming that the Cavaliers had only recently moved for the likes of J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver and Iman Shumpert, all due to LeBron. Barkley also questioned LeBron’s will to compete:
“He’s the best player in the world. Does he want all of the good players? He don’t want to compete? He is an amazing player. They’re the defending champs.”
This understandably led to a response from James, with Barkley also having called him “whiny” during one of the TNT episodes. James ended up claiming that Charles Barkley was merely a hater and suggested that he thought he had credibility only because he was on TV.
Barkley once called out Skip Bayless for criticizing LeBron James
While Barkley is a regular criticizer of James, the Rockets legend comes hardly anywhere close to Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless. Bayless has been guilty of hating on LeBron innumerable times during his analysis.
However, speaking in an interview back in 2021, Barkley criticized Bayless for saying “bad things” about James. Barkley suggested that while he himself is respectful toward a legend like LeBron James, Bayless tends to make his criticism personal.
That in itself comes as a surprise, considering the personal nature of his comments against LeBron in the past. Of course, while Barkley always tries to put out his objective opinion, his personality sees to it that he sometimes ends up going overboard with his comments.
