The "new sheriff in town" line was pretty corny, I thought. And once again, nothing LeBron said refuted anything that Barkley said.
I also have to question how he's "always" done right by the game and the NBA, when he's a notorious flopper, has a history of throwing his teammates under the bus, claimed to be a "winner" after losing the 2011 NBA Finals among other asinine comments, and held the painfully self-serving "Decision" special back in 2010. He's looked bad on more than one occasion, and pouted because people had the gall to call out "The King". Still, I guess when you call up people trying to recruit them to your brand and introduce yourself as "The King", and have it tattooed on your body, it shouldn't be surprising that you're an egotistical brat.
Meanwhile,
Barkley responds:
A day after LeBron James called him a "hater" and dug up some personal history, TNT analyst Charles Barkley says he stands by his criticism of the Cleveland Cavaliers' star player.
"I stick by what I said, I'm not going to make this personal ... he was all whiny last week," Barkley said on the Waddle & Silvy show on ESPN Radio. "... I'm good and I'm straightforward, I'm never going to get personal on an NBA player."
When asked Tuesday if he felt James crossed the line, Barkley said it was a case of shooting the messenger and that he had no issues with James' remarks.
"I was laughing, clearly he did some homework ... he Googled me and found some things," Barkley said. "He was young when I was playing so I appreciate that, but I'm not upset about it ... my criticism was fair and I'm good with that."
Despite drawing the ire of one of the biggest names in the sport, Barkley said he doesn't plan to rein in his opinions.
"Some of the stuff he said about me is correct -- doesn't make the message I said about him incorrect," Barkley said. "Some of them are intimidated about LeBron [but] I'm not intimidated at all."
That excerpt from the interview: "When you don't like the message, you just kill the messenger...that still does not make my message incorrect." Spot on.