Charles Barkley Reveals His All-Time Starting Five

Charles Barkley shared his all-time starting five, and there is one glaring omission in it.

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Considering the sheer number of truly great players that have played in the NBA, it is not an easy task to pick an all-time starting lineup. You’re inevitably going to leave out a lot of the greats of the game, and it’s impossible to name a starting five that everyone would be satisfied by.

We recently had some NBA rookies try their hand at it, and now, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has revealed his own all-time starting five.

“Michael (Jordan), Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), and Wilt (Chamberlain),” Barkley said.

We know how much Barkley likes the big man in basketball, but having three centers in his all-time starting five sure is interesting. The players he chose though are all some of the greatest we have ever seen.

Michael Jordan, of course, is widely regarded as the greatest ever, and he won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles.

Oscar Robertson was the first player to ever average a triple-double in a season and won an MVP to go with a title.

Bill Russell, meanwhile, won an NBA record 11 championships in his 13 seasons in the league and was a five-time MVP as well.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six titles, two Finals MVPs, six MVPs, and was the all-time leading scorer for nearly 40 years.

Lastly, Wilt Chamberlain is arguably the most dominant player the NBA has ever seen. He won two titles, a Finals MVP, four MVPs, and seven scoring titles in his storied career.


The  Most Glaring Omission From Charles Barkley’s Starting Five

While all five men are undoubtedly great, there is one glaring omission in Barkley’s starting five, and that would be LeBron James. Is it really a surprise though that Barkley omitted LeBron? Not really.

He revealed earlier this year that he only considers LeBron to be the seventh greatest player in NBA history and this was after he broke Kareem’s all-time scoring record. His reasoning was that LeBron is a nice guy and doesn’t have the killer mentality of someone like Jordan. Barkley also ranked Jimmy Butler higher than LeBron on his all-time Miami Heat list during these past playoffs.

He is entitled to his opinion, of course, but not having LeBron in an all-time starting five and ranking him below Butler for the Heat, sure is a bit questionable.

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Gautam Varier is a staff writer and columnist for Fadeaway World from Mumbai, India. He graduated from Symbiosis International University with a Master of Business specializing in Sports Management in 2020. This educational achievement enables Gautam to apply sophisticated analytical techniques to his incisive coverage of basketball, blending business acumen with sports knowledge.Before joining Fadeaway World in 2022, Gautam honed his journalistic skills at Sportskeeda and SportsKPI, where he covered a range of sports topics with an emphasis on basketball. His passion for the sport was ignited after witnessing the high-octane offense of the Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns. Among the Suns, Shawn Marion stood out to Gautam as an all-time underrated NBA player. Marion’s versatility as a defender and his rebounding prowess, despite being just 6’7”, impressed Gautam immensely. He admired Marion’s finishing ability at the rim and his shooting, despite an unconventional jump shot, believing that Marion’s skill set would have been even more appreciated in today’s NBA.This transformative experience not only deepened his love for basketball but also shaped his approach to sports writing, enabling him to connect with readers through vivid storytelling and insightful analysis.
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