There’s been an ongoing war of words between Lakers coach JJ Redick and Inside the NBA co-host Charles Barkley about the state and coverage of the game of basketball. Seemingly everyone has weighed in on the issue, and on Thursday ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith threw his hat into the ring.
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The root of the problem is that Redick hasn’t been happy about media members denigrating the state of the game, because he believes it turns people off from wanting to watch in the first place. He hasn’t called Barkley out by name, but as one of the most prominent critics of the way the game is played now, Barkley has fired back whenever Redick brings it up.
On his radio show, Smith sympathized with both viewpoints. He praised Redick for his basketball intellect, but didn’t blame Barkley for being critical, because he said that the Inside the NBA guys praise what deserves praising and criticize what deserves criticizing.
“They don’t get personal. They just talk about your game and what you put on display.”
Smith acknowledged that while today’s athletes are better than those who played in the 80’s and 90’s, that hasn’t translated into the product on the court being better. “Sometimes we watch the game and it sucks,” Smith said, “and here’s where JJ hurts himself. JJ knows that’s true.”
Smith pointed to the game being less physical now, the over-reliance on the three-point shot, and fans questioning players’ conditioning and commitment as reasons that basketball is suffering. But he did Redick’s player LeBron James for “not cheating the game” even at age 40.
Smith is Redick’s former colleague, and he’ll soon be colleagues with Barkley and the Inside the NBA crew when the show comes to ESPN next season. All in all, he did a pretty reasonable job of remaining fair and balanced on this one.
Redick and Barkley can both be right
The NBA has created problems for itself by allowing the game to swing too far from what it used to be, and guys like Redick and Barkley are caught up in the middle of it. Redick is right in his stance. For fans, seeing constant criticism of the state of the game from the people who are supposed to be promoting it can be a turn-off, and that sentiment could be partially responsible for the recent decline in NBA ratings.
Barkley is also right though. There are aspects of the game that just aren’t appealing right now, and his job isn’t to be a cheerleader, it’s to talk about basketball — good, bad, or otherwise.
The back-and-forth between Redick and Barkley has mostly been focused on the state of the game, but Barkley’s criticism of the Lakers has seeped in, too, which complicates matters. Barkley has been hard on the Lakers this year despite them being 20-16, and he roasted L.A. for losing to a shorthanded Mavs team on Tuesday night. He’s also implied that they’re no better with Redick than they were with Darvin Ham or Frank Vogel.
Gilbert Arenas accused Barkley of not watching the games because the Lakers actually do have a better record under Redick than they’ve had in previous years. Regardless, this is a conversation that isn’t likely to die anytime soon. For NBA fans who love drama, it will be a fun rest of the season.
