Things have not been going well for the Cleveland Cavaliers as of late. After going 15-5 in the first 20 games of the season, the Cavs have lost 10 games over their last 27 and now sit 32-15.
Sure, 17 games above .500 seems like a decent record, but it’s not good enough when you’re the defending champions and have a star-studded lineup. Following the team’s loss to the Mavericks on Monday night, LeBron James had enough and fired back at NBA on TNT analyst and former NBA player Charles Barkley with some choice words in an interview with ESPN.
"He's a hater. What makes what he says credible? Because he's on TV?"
"I'm not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that," James told ESPN. "I'm not the one who threw somebody through a window. I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said, 'I'm not a role model.' I never showed up to All-Star Weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying."
"All I've done for my entire career is represent the NBA the right way. Fourteen years, never got in trouble. Respected the game. Print that."
LeBron’s former teammate and good friend Dwyane Wade quickly stood up for him in an interview with K.C. Johnston of the Chicago Tribune.
You can bet that Charles Barkley got wind of what LeBron said, and responded to his comments while he was on ESPN Chicago 1000’s Waddle & Silvy on Tuesday. Here’s what he had to say.
“Number One: I have no problem with what LeBron said. Some of it was true. I did pay my debt – that’s not true. I was never late to the All-Star Game, so that’s not true. But I don’t overreact. I’m not going to say anything bad about him or get personal. I stick by what I said. He was all whiny and everything last week. So, I’m good, man.
“If I’m going to be straight forward like I always try to be, I know guys are going to come back at me sometimes. I’m good. He got personal, but I’m never going to get personal on an NBA player. All my criticism or critiques are always just about basketball. And I’m going to keep doing what I do.”
“Clearly he had done his homework on some screw-ups I’ve had in my life. I appreciate him reading … Clearly he Googled me and found out some things. Because I think he was young when I was playing. So, he clearly Googled me, so I appreciate that. But listen, man. I’m not going to get upset that someone said something bad about me. I’m not like 12 years old.”
You might think that’s the end of it, but the 1993 NBA MVP and 11-time NBA All-Star wasn’t done there, though.
“I think when you don’t like the message, you just kill the messenger. Some of the things he said about me are correct. That still does not make my message incorrect. I thought he was really whiny and complaining the past couple weeks, talking about how he’s got no help. Dude, you just won the championship.”
“I’ve only met LeBron casually. He’s always been great to me. I think I’ve been great and cordial to him. But this notion that we have to be friends, we’re never going to be friends.
“That’s not a negative thing, I’m not friends with none of these young guys. My job is to do my job, but I do understand that this is a different generation. Where anytime you say something about young guys, they take it personally.
“They never worry about whether the criticism is fair or not. They take it personally. That doesn’t bother me.”
It’s pretty funny how Barkley makes a point of saying how he doesn’t have a problem with anything he said about him and that he doesn’t take anything the younger players say about him personally. However, he says it multiple times throughout the interview, so perhaps it really did strike a nerve.
We’re guessing the feud between the two is just getting started. Let’s wait and see if LeBron has anything to say in response to Barkley’s recent comments.
(H/T For The Win)
