Breaking: Another old man yells at cloud.
This time it’s NBA legend and basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, who ranted about some of today’s generation of players complaining about having to play on short rests before going off on a tangent with regards to the differences between his era to the present, when it comes to transportation.
The ever highly-opinionated Barkley colorfully spoke about that during an appearance on UConn Huskies Women’s Basketball Team Head Coach Geno Auriemma’s podcast show, Holding Court.
“It drives me crazy when guys making $30 million are complaining about playing basketball two days in a row,” Barkley said. “We did that and we flew commercial. These guys, they never even go to the airport. I remember I’d be sleeping in the airport at 5 o’clock in the morning, traveling three hours and playing a game that day.”
“We never even chartered until my third year in the NBA. My first two years in the NBA… teams didn’t start flying private until the Detroit Pistons won the championship in like ’88, ’89 and they started this phase of flying private and then everybody started chartering. But that was like my fifth or sixth year in the league actually.”
Hearing about older players chastise, whether indirectly or not, the younger generation for being a bunch of softies has been a tradition since time immemorial.
Maybe there were players during Barkley’s time that did not like the way they have to play back-to-back games, but we just didn’t hear them say it because social media was decades away from exploding into the scene.
I’m guessing that somewhere inside an old basketball arena, the words “I don’t want to be here” were carved on its wall.
Barkley has been known to be an old-school guy, averse to the idea that basketball is evolving.
Remember when he made fun of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey for resorting to analytics when it comes to constructing a basketball team?
Classic Chuck.
Follow Us
Subscribe