Green aiming to show Barkley a fourth ring
SAN FRANCISCO >> Charles Barkley has been candid about his disdain for San Francisco and doubts about the Warriors' chances to win the Western Conference finals. His TNT colleague, Warriors star Draymond Green, offered a response to Barkley on Thursday.
In Green's eyes, Barkley is speaking out of fear. Barkley, who didn't win a championship during his 15-year NBA career, doesn't want Green to rub a fourth championship ring in his face when the forward eventually joins him on the “Inside the NBA” panel.
“If I win another championship, that's one more ring added to the panel that's not him,” said Green, who was named to the NBA's All-Defensive second team before Friday's Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. “I wouldn't want to see that either, then you really have to hear about it. I get it. I understand. I don't know how that feels, I always won. I guess I'd feel the same way.”
Green added that Barkley can't contribute to the championship conversation, having not won an NBA Finals series himself.
“You guys keep adding rings and I have to sit here and, when the playoffs come around, what are you going to say?” Green said. “You're going to tell us how to win? Not taking that advice from Chuck. What's he going to say? Tell him I'm going to get your mama if you keep talking junk to me because y'all won. Alright, go ahead Chuck. That's my dog though, I love Chuck.”
Barkley became persona non grata at Chase Center after calling San Francisco “hell” on Inside the NBA and picking the Dallas Mavericks to win the series after their Game 7 victory over the top-seeded Phoenix Suns last week.
“The Mavs are going to be better at small ball because Luka (Doncic), no one can handle that guy one-on-one,” Barkley said on the show. “If (Jalen) Brunson and (Spencer) Dinwiddie keep playing the way they're playing, this team will
be tough to beat.”
The crowd spilled onto the Chase Center plaza — where the Inside panel was situated — after the Warriors' 112-87 Game 1 win on Wednesday night and hit Barkley with a “Chuck you suck” chant during Green's appearance on the panel as a postgame guest.
Host Ernie Johnson reminded Barkley that he said he “didn't like” San Francisco, so the chant was justified.
Barkley doubled down on his first comment:
“I don't dislike the area. I hate the area.”
“The area hates you,” Green fired back. Barkley's testy history with the Warriors goes deeper than this series. Before the 2015 playoffs, Barkley bet against the Warriors, saying their style of play was not a winning style.
“They've had a terrific season. But I don't like jump-shooting teams,” he said then on TNT. “I don't think you can make enough jumpers to win four series in a row. I've said that for 25 years, not just now. I think you physically manhandle them inside.”
The Warriors went 16-5 in those playoffs and revolutionized the way teams play offense in the NBA today. Barkley wore a shirt acknowledging his missed prediction. Since then, Barkley has leaned into a personal rivalry with Golden State, and Green and fans are having fun nudging back.