Draymond Green and Charles Barkley beefed for a couple of hours before they decided to call it quits and start a friendship instead of exchanging shots every time they had the chance.
It all started when Chuck stated he’d like to punch Draymond in the face for his style of play and on-court antics, with the Golden State Warriors replying like he only knows. After that, Barkley kept calling out Green, naming him a ‘triple-single’ specialist, among other things.
This all came to an end when Green joined TNT in 2020 to cover the infamous Orlando bubble. At the time, the Golden State Warriors didn’t make it to the bubble, and Green had a lot of time to try new things, including a new gig on TV.
It’s been almost two years since that moment and Draymond and Charles had the chance to discuss how their relationship went from hate to a lot of respect and appreciation. During a recent edition of the Draymond Green Show, he revealed how the animosity toward Barkley started (34:00).
“I was coming on there, we had been talking back and forth in the media, you said you were going to punch me in my face, I said I was going to take your job, we can go on and on and on, it went on for years,” Green begins. “The moment I walked onto that set, you got out of your seat, ‘what’s up Draymond, how you doing?’
I’ll be 100 percent honest with you, I was walking up there like whatever happened, happened if he says something to me, wants to punch me, I’m ready to go there. And you disarmed me so fast, like ‘what’s up man how you doing, it’s great to see you, welcome.’ I’m just sitting there like…what the hell.”
Barkley replied by saying that wasn’t anything too serious and he said he’d punch Green in the face simply because he couldn’t stop talking with referees.
“Some people don’t realize, at one or two o’clock in the morning sometimes you’re like this dude is driving me crazy tonight,” Barkley says. “He’s arguing with the refs all night and then Shaq said ‘what do you want to do?’ and I said ‘I just want to punch him in the face.’ And what pissed me off about that night, to be honest with you, I was joking around and then a reporter asked you that and then … when I heard him ask you that question, I thought ‘oh man this dude is going to think I’m serious about punching him.’ I’m not ever going to punch an NBA player because we’re all in the same family.”
This feud was a very entertaining one. The big men didn’t mince words while exchanging jabs, creating a big rivalry. Fortunately, they could make amends as soon as they started working together, giving us plenty of good moments on ‘The Arena’ during the infamous bubble. Right now, they seem to be on good terms, but this doesn’t mean we could see Barkley and Green going at it in the future as Chuck does with Shaq right now.
