Charles Barkley is a Hall of Fame basketball player. During the height of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns, he was one of the top players in the NBA.
Barkley is also a divisive figure in today’s NBA due to his somewhat controversial analysis of the game. More often than not, Chuck has found himself sparring with the Golden State Warriors. The story is by now well known. Subjectively, he’s not a fan of their small-ball lineup and doesn’t believe a backcourt oriented squad can win a title.
Golden State proved Barkley wrong in 2015, but that hasn’t changed the give-and-take between members of the Warriors and the media personality.
When asked about comparisons that has linked him to Barkley, Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green wasn’t having any of it. The question was simple. Would you consider yourself the modern-day Charles Barkley?
“H**l no, I am the modern day Draymond Green. I was raised by Mary Babers,” Green said, via ESPN.com. “In the Babers family, that’s what you do. Speak your mind … I was not a Charles Barkley fan growing up.”
Well, tell us how you really feel Draymond.
To be fair, the comparisons themselves are pretty weak. Green is nowhere near the offensive player and scorer Barkley was. Here’s a Hall of Famer that averaged 22-plus points during his career. Green is coming off a 2016-17 regular season that saw him average 10.2 points.
An argument, however, could be made that Green is one of the top-10 basketball players in the Association. He also averaged 7.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists and an NBA-high 2.0 steals per game during the regular year.
The comparisons themselves are more about the pure passion Green exhibits on the court and how he might rub opponents the wrong way. Both are also considered smaller by power forward standards. There are legitimate comparisons.
Green and his Warriors open up their conference semifinals series against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday after a week-plus layoff. We’re pretty sure Chuck will find a way to respond during TNT’s broadcast of the game.