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“You can’t call us a superteam, we were 97 years old!”: Charles Barkley pithily explains how LeBron James’ superteams were different from his Rockets team with Hakeem Olajuwon

Akash Murty
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"You can't call us a superteam, we were 97 years old!": Charles Barkley pithily explains how LeBron James' superteams were different from his Rockets team with Hakeem Olajuwon

Charles Barkley says he hates Superteams and LeBron James was the first one who started forming them.

It could’ve been true that three friends who were drafted in the NBA in the same year, in three different franchises planned to play together in the same team in order to win Championships.

But Chuck hates the “Superteam” formed by LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. He thinks LeBron ruined Cleveland when he left them for Miami Heat in 2010.

Is that case though?

Also Read: “LeBron James has the best sneaker game on the Lakers roster”: 4-time Finals MVP pips Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook in dressing room poll results

The “Round Mound of rebound” expressed his hatred of Superstars teaming up in the NBA 

In a recent interview with Fox announcer and sportscaster Chris Myers, Charles Barkley opened up on various topics. Charles went:

“I am not a fan of superteams at all, if all the guys get together to join a team and join up and win, that doesn’t seem like real competition..it’s not a good business model, we can’t have 3-4 good teams and 28 bad teams.”

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King James, after joining Miami, got huge hate from the fans and the media at the time. He led them to 4 straight finals and won two of them. He came back to his home franchise and won them their first-ever championship as well, but Charles isn’t impressed by that.

Myers asked him “are you pointing a finger at LeBron for starting superteams?” 

To which Charles said “Sure!! He is the first guy who did it, he completely ruined the Cleveland franchise” 

Chuk talked about his admiration for the guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Dirk Nowitzki, who led their franchise which drafted them, to a championship despite not having the best team in the league. 

Myres then hit Sir Charles great question about him joining Houston Rockets and asked was it not a superteam? 

Charles Barkley joked that they were 97 years old when he joined Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston 

The Sixers legend joined Huston Rockets in 1996, the team that had won two straight championships just a year ago.

This team just didn’t have a recent league MVP and 2-time Finals MVP, Hakeem- the Dream – Olajuwon, but also a 10-time All-Star Clyde Drexler. Olajuwon and Barkley were same age at 33 and Drexler 34, all of them were averaging around their career-average all across the board.

But Sir Charles believes they were just a bunch of old bags when they came together. 

“It wasn’t a superteam because we were all 97 years old. If we got together when we were 30 it would have been a super team, we were all 40”

Also read: “I would’ve fired everybody there”: Sixers legend Charles Barkley reveals the hilarious reason why he isn’t an NBA GM in an interview with Chris Myers

No, you weren’t Charles!!! 

They were all still closer to 30 than they were to 40. Also, Hakeem and Co. didn’t need Chuck, another “Superstar” or “Superteam” to win 2 titles just 1 year back.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

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An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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