For several years now, Turner Sports analyst Charles Barkley has been feuding with Golden State Warriors’ star Draymond Green, and apparently even COVID-19 quarantine restrictions and the lack of a current NBA season haven’t slowed that down. After showing up on SNL At Home this weekend, Barkley appeared on Kentucky Wildcats’ head coach John Calipari’s Coffee With Cal Facebook Live interview series Monday, and as part of their conversation, he had some rather uncomplimentary things to say about Green:
https://twitter.com/tjbeisner/status/1254791263229865985
That’s quite the insult, but there’s also maybe something to the analogy of Green as a largely-overlooked boy band member. While his rebounding and defensive contributions have undoubtedly been huge to Golden State’s titles, he does seem to not always get the public spotlight of a Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, or Klay Thompson. So perhaps he is the Chris Kirkpatrick of the Warriors.
Also, it’s worth noting that this isn’t exactly a one-sided rivalry. Green has shot back at Barkley plenty of times with his own insults, even bringing then-Turner Sports president David Levy into the discussion in 2018. And Green has thrown out lame lines about Barkley not having NBA championship rings (because you know Green would totally be winning championships if he wasn’t surrounded by other talented players) while suggesting that he wants to take Barkley’s job (which may not be that farfetched). So while this might be seen as quite the step over the line if it was Barkley criticizing another player who hadn’t previously gone after him, the history between him and Green certainly is notable context here. At any rate, the Barkley-Green feud apparently doesn’t take time off, even in quarantine.
[Coffee With Cal on Facebook Live]