Charles Barkley spent 16 seasons in the NBA during which he established himself as one of the greats of the game.
Barkley was an 11-time All-Star who won MVP in 1993 and while he dominated his matchup on most nights, there were certainly some opponents that gave him trouble. During a recent interview with House of Highlights, Barkley named the top five toughest players he played against.
“Kevin McHale is the best player I ever played against,” Barkley said. “Popeye Jones gave me nightmares. (Larry) Bird was amazing. Karl Malone. I didn’t get a chance to play a lot because I was past my prime, Tim Duncan. That would have been a great challenge.”
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Barkley has always stated that Kevin McHale was the best player he went up against in his career. McHale was an excellent post player in the 1980s who averaged 17.9 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 1.7 APG, 0.4 SPG, and 1.7 BPG for his career. He was also a seven-time All-Star.
His longtime Boston Celtics teammate Larry Bird, meanwhile, is one of the game’s all-time greats and averaged 24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, and 0.8 BPG for his career. He won three MVPs and was a 12-time All-Star.
Karl Malone and Barkley really vied for that title of best power forward in the 1990s, with Malone putting up 25.0 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.4 SPG, and 0.8 BPG for his career. He won two MVPs and was a 14-time All-Star as well.
Tim Duncan is widely regarded as the greatest power forward ever and it would have been great to see him and Barkley go at each other in their primes. For his career, Duncan averaged 19.0 PPG, 10.8 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.7 SPG, and 2.2 BPG. He too won two MVPs and was a 15-time All-Star.
Lastly, we get to Popeye Jones who is certainly the most interesting pick here. Jones was a journeyman who averaged just 7.0 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.6 SPG, and 0.3 BPG for his career. He clearly made quite an impression on Barkley though, to make it over so many other greats that he played against.
Charles Barkley Gave His All-Time Starting Five
During this short segment, Barkley also revealed his all-time starting five. It consisted of Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain. It isn’t often that an all-time starting five has three centers on it. but that’s the direction Barkley went in.
Just like he raised some eyebrows by having Jones on the list of his toughest opponents, he did it here too by not having LeBron James in his starting five. It wasn’t as big of a surprise as Jones though, as Barkley had shared in the past that he only considers LeBron to be the seventh greatest player in history.
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