Charles Barkley Explains Why He Dislikes the Warriors' Style of Basketball
Charles Barkley has long criticized the Golden State Warriors' style of play, and he didn't hold back Thursday before the Cleveland Cavaliers tipped off against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first half of a doubleheader on TNT.
"Maybe I'm old school, but I'm never going to like that little girly basketball where you have to outscore people," he said on the live broadcast. "I love [UConn women's head coach] Geno Auriemma, one of my favorite people. I love women's college basketball. But I don't want it in the NBA."
"It's getting to the point if our team walked in front of [Barkley's] house, he'd yell 'Get off my lawn!'" Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said, per Anthony Slater of the Bay Area News Group.
Rachel Nichols of ESPN took exception to Barkley's use of the word "girly," per Becca Laurie:
This is hardly the first time Barkley has taken aim at the Warriors for embracing a small-ball approach anchored by jump shooting.
"The game’s going to come down to defense and rebounding," he said in October, per For The Win's Charles Curtis. "And easy baskets down low, that’s just my philosophy. If they win, maybe next time they can go get LeBron, then they can win that way, and y’all can still think that analytics [expletive] works."
According to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck, Barkley said in October that he didn't think "you can win a championship shooting jumpers," even though the Warriors captured a title over the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015:
And even though the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead and lost to the Cavaliers in June, their formula has inarguably been a wild success.
Not only did the defending Western Conference champions finish with the league's top offensive rating last season by nearly three points, but they're producing a league-leading 114.6 points per 100 possessions in 2016-17.
The Warriors also own the league's top effective field-goal percentage (57.2)—which is 2.5 points higher than that of the second-best Houston Rockets.
In other words, don't be surprised if the Warriors parlay another season full of statistical dominance into a third straight Western Conference title as they attempt to redeem themselves following last year's Finals slip-up.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com.
