The Team USA men's basketball squad had an impressive run in the 2024 Olympics. The USA won gold with their 98-87 victory over France on Aug. 11. Nevertheless, the highly talented squad was tested early, which prompted a stern warning from former Phoenix Suns star and TNT commentator Charles Barkley. Barkley made another comment about the team that Kendrick Perkins disagreed with, and the former NBA All-Star responded emphatically.
On July 2, Team USA was a hair away from losing to South Sudan in an Olympic tune-up game. Games like this promoted Charles Barkley to claim that the USA should not be tested and should dominate. Kendrick Perkins called Barkley's take “asinine,” and said that the team should be tested. Barkley did not hold back and gave a brutal response to Perkins:
“Don't bring up a guy who averaged five points a game. I'm not gonna stoop to his level. You average five points a game, shut the hell up,” Barkley said via the Dan Le Batard Show.
To Barkley's point, Perkins averaged 5.4 points per game throughout his NBA career compared to the Suns legend's 22.1 points. Still, Perkins' take is understandable. Team USA had to acknowledge that other teams would bring their best performances and not let them run away with victories.
Charles Barkley was serious about Team USA's performance
Barkley would not accept anything less than a gold medal for Team USA. He revealed his stern warning to the team when their stint in the Olympics got heated up in early August.
“Listen if they lose we can't let them back in the country, we can't, I told them they can't come back. I mean because with the team we got I mean it's no excuse for us to lose the gold medal. All they got to do is go out there and play hard, play unselfish because that's really the key,” Barkley said, via Via Podcast P presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment.
“Like we talked about it a little bit earlier, Joel [Embiid], heck of a player, we're not gonna walk the ball up and down the court to give it to you. LeBron [James], we're not gonna walk the ball up and down the court same thing. Like whoever is in the game like hey let me just play basketball. It was so easy on the first Dream Team, like yo we got two starting lineups, y'all play the first 10 we play the second 10, let's just play basketball. We're not really going to run no plays because if we play great defense and push it that's all we got to do,” Barkley added.
Thankfully, Team USA overcame all opposition and brought gold medals back to America.
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