Stephen A. Smith was the second ESPN figure to give his two cents on the Draymond Green-Charles Barkley fiasco, after Jalen Rose noted the TNT analyst had gone “too far” with his comments.
The longtime ESPN voice noted he is aware of Barkley's intentions, which weren't malicious at all — having apologized on live television the following night.
“I'm very very fond of both of them. I'm friends with Charles Barkley. I know that he didn't mean it the way people took it but I also know he doesn't care that people took it differently,” Smith told Nina Mandell of USA TODAY Sports.
“Would I have said that? No. Should he have said what he said the way that he said it? No. Was Draymond Green perfectly within his right to react the way that he did? Absolutely. Because what he was saying is he's a grown man and if somebody's going to threaten to punch him in the face, come on and do it and watch what happens.”
Smith; who has covered the Warriors and even Barkley during the latter stage of his career, expressed Barkley's sentiment for saying what he said.
“In the case of Charles Barkley however, I don't think he meant it that way at all,” Smith begun. “I think he was saying he would love to do that, he wishes he was still playing in the same era that a guy like Draymond Green plays in where you're talking and you get in people's faces, whatever, and nobody's there to shut you down. He wasn't saying that a 50-plus year-old man he's going to come off of the set of a television and want to fight Draymond Green as a 50-plus year old man. That's not what Charles Barkley was saying.”
“What he was saying is that he comes from a different generation. And in that generation, what they define as tough guy is different than what he believes they define as tough guys now which is why he said what he said. But Draymond Green in my opinion is no punk in any era. He can hold his own against most. He's certainly not going to back down against anybody and I don't think he was wrong to refuse to back down against Barkley.”
Both analyst and player acted in expected manners, based on what the public has come to know about them. Barkley is paid to give controversial, and at time out-of-line takes, while Green is the lion's heart of the Golden State Warriors and has yet to back down from a challenge on or off the court.
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