Hall of Famer Charles Barkley isn’t the biggest fan of today’s NBA, and he has highlighted his issues with it during an appearance on The Howard Eskin Show. Host Howard Eskin asked Barkley what was wrong with the NBA, and he pointed to two things.
“I think it’s a very interesting time for the NBA for a couple of reasons,” Barkley said. “Number one, it just became a three-point shooting contest every night… I love these coaches, and they’re like, ‘Well, we didn’t make enough shots.’ I’m like, ‘No s***, Sherlock Holmes.’… You should always have a Plan B. It’s all right to drive to the basket, take a layup, or a mid-range jumper every now and then.
“So, I think that’s one of the problems with the NBA,” Barkley added. “It’s just become a three-point shooting contest.”
Teams are attempting 37.0 three-pointers per game in this 2025-26 season, the second-highest mark in league history. The highest was in the 2024-25 season, when teams averaged 37.6 three-pointers per game.
Barkley believes Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have ruined the NBA. The 63-year-old claims everyone is jacking up threes thinking they’re as good as Curry and Thompson at shooting.
Barkley clarified that his issue isn’t with the three-point shot, but with who is taking them. While he doesn’t like seeing all these threes being shot in games, his biggest issue is with load management.
“Howard, number one, I ain’t no hater,” Barkley stated. “God bless these guys. No matter how much money they make, that’s just whatever they make, they make. But you can’t have guys making 50, 60, 70 million dollars, and it’s probably going to go higher with this new television deal, you can’t have guys saying, ‘I can’t play basketball two days in a row.’ I mean, that’s just flat-out crazy.
“I mean, I think it’s disrespectful to the game,” Barkley continued. “I think it’s disrespectful to the fans. Can you imagine Howard, these people who pay their hard-earned money to come see a guy making $75 million a year, saying, ‘I can’t play tonight ’cause I played last night.’ It ain’t like we a steelworker.
“I mean, I’m pretty sure steelworkers and doctors and nurses and firemen and teachers and policemen don’t want to go to work every day,” Barkley added. “And they’re not compensated fairly. But for guys to be making 60, 70 million dollars to come out and say, ‘You know what, I can’t play basketball two days in a row,’ that’s just disrespectful to the game and to the fans. That to me is the biggest issue.”
The NBA isn’t a fan of load management as well. The league’s findings revealed that it doesn’t reduce the risk of injuries, and it has been trying to find ways to combat the concept.
Load management is indeed a problem, but Barkley and so many others are going after the wrong people for it. Back in 2023, Curry spoke about the misconception of load management.
“I usually campaign to play every game,” Curry said, via Anthony Slater. That’s the misconception about load management. It’s never the player that’s usually saying, ‘Hey, I want to sit.’ So, for all those people that are worried about that part of our league and all that, it’s usually not the players going to the training staff and saying, ‘Hey, I don’t have it tonight.’ It’s usually the other way around, and there’s a lot of science involved.”
That’s where Barkley’s frustrations need to be aimed at. Are there some players who might be going to their teams and saying they don’t want to play? Sure, but the majority are simply following what they are being told. It’s a pity that the players keep getting ripped.
