NBA legend Charles Barkley is the latest star to give his take on the best players in history, and his list is very curious, to say the least. The former NBA MVP joined ‘Coffee with Cal’, a Facebook show ran by the University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari.
Barkley was the guest in the third episode of the show, where he left a lot of things to discuss. However, one of the boldest things we witnessed from Chuck was his top 10 list of all time, which includes some strange positions in the eyes of many.
He went with Michael Jordan as the GOAT before picking Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, ‘in no particular order’ after His Airness.
Then he continued with Kobe at 6, LeBron James at 7 before finishing with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. He didn’t list the 10th spot on the list, as he started to explain why he doesn’t see LeBron in a higher position among the greatest.
“I do think the way they play the game today, [LeBron] didn’t want any part of those Bad Boy Pistons,” Barkley said. “Those guys were out there trying to hurt people. I used to always tell people that when you play the Pistons, you gotta call your family and tell them you love them just in case you never saw them again.”
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During the fourth episode of ‘The Last Dance’, we saw how MJ prepared to face and beat the Pistons that had beaten him and the Bulls for three straight seasons. Even though everybody knew about the infamous ‘Jordan Rules’, His Airness never backed down and he was always willing to go at it to win.
It’s always complex to compare eras, but Chuck might have a solid point here. LeBron is known for being a world-class flopper; imagine what would happen with him during the Bad Boys era.
