Following first-round exits for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs, head coaches Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel came under fire from the media and fans. Charles Barkley came to Ham and Vogel’s defense and blasted the players instead, for the team’s failures and Gilbert Arenas wasn’t a fan of those comments.
“I don’t like him,” Arenas said on Gil’s Arena. “… I used to be a fan, I still (am) a fan, I just don’t like how he talks about whose fault it is because when he was playing he didn’t take no responsibility for what was going on with him, right?”
“Whose fault was it when they (Barkley’s Suns) went 41-41 and he needed to leave to go try to win a championship,” Arena continued. “He wasn’t good enough then? Then when he got to Houston, teams that won championship, who was out of shape that couldn’t be healthy… Where was the responsibility then? I hate when you get to a certain stage and you start throwing shots when you were a problem yourself when you played.”
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Arenas went on to say that these players don’t have the kind of gambling problems that Barkley had and that they actually care about the game. To be fair to Sir Charles, he has acknowledged plenty of times that he made mistakes during his career.
Barkley hasn’t shied away from taking the blame for being the problem on some occasions and part of the reason why his teams didn’t win. He has even said he doesn’t want today’s players to make the mistakes he made.
A big issue for Barkley is that the media in general nowadays does not call out players when they need to be criticized. The 61-year-old thinks players are not being held accountable, because the media wants to maintain a good relationship with them. Barkley has never cared about that and he never will.
Gilbert Arenas Had Also Taken Issue With Charles Barkley Calling Kevin Durant A Follower
This is hardly the first time that Arenas has had an issue with something Barkley said. In fact, it has happened quite a few times by now. Earlier this year, Arenas defended Kevin Durant after Barkley called him a follower.
“When you call somebody a follower, not a leader, let us know which team that you lead or was leading,” said Arenas. “Being the best player on the Suns, you didn’t lead. It was already established before you got there. You bailed out in Philadelphia and you wanted to try and win a ring. So whenever you have a grudge with someone like Kevin Durant you need to go back and look at yourself and look at your f*cking career cause you followed back then.”
Prior to this, Arenas claimed Barkley did worse things than Ja Morant at the same age when the Hall of Famer had told the Memphis Grizzlies star to grow up. Arenas also criticized Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal for calling out Ben Simmons, as he stated they were both prima donnas when they played.
It seems fairly clear that Arenas thinks Barkley is a hypocrite when he calls out today’s players, as he behaved a lot worse than them. I think he would have made a point if Barkley had never admitted to making mistakes, but he has done that.
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