The Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns each suffered first round exits out of the NBA Playoffs with star-studded rosters. With hundreds of millions of dollars invested and stars like LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal all going to Cancun, somebody else has to take the blame, right?
Or in the words of Cris Carter, you have to find a fall guy.
So naturally, attention has immediately shifted to the coaching futures of Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel. Negative stories have already come out about their potential impending demise and it’s a hot topic in the media. But never one to play along with the prevailing narrative of the day, Charles Barkley sounded off on Wednesday night’s Inside the NBA to tell the world that the star players should take the responsibility in defending Ham and Vogel.
Charles Barkley with a message on coaches, players and people who cover basketball.
“For all you punks, idiots and jackasses on other networks, who want to be media and who want all the players to like y’all, do your damn job. The Lakers suck and the Suns suck because of the… pic.twitter.com/jXXBgxHJ5N
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 2, 2024
“A lot of these people on television, they’re cowards because they want the players to like them. They don’t want to do their job, which is to tell the truth. I just want to say this about coaching: anybody who thinks the reason the Lakers suck is because of Darvin Ham or the reason the Suns suck is because of Frank Vogel, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Barkley said.
“For all you punks, idiots and jackasses on other networks, who want to be media and who want all the players to like y’all, do your damn job. The Lakers suck and the Suns suck because of the players,” he added.
Barkley then took a deep breath and said, “I feel better now.”
Whenever a superteam fails to meet expectation, the blame always falls on the shoulders of the coach, unless you’re Doc Rivers and you just keep getting jobs regardless.. That’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to the NBA and it goes all the way back to Magic Johnson and Paul Westhead.
Is the media too player-friendly by and large? Of course. Is Charles Barkley one of the few personalities to speak openly and honestly about it? Yes. But… maybe he should also check out the Awful Coaching guy on YouTube just to see a different perspective.
