Chuck and Klay continue to go back and forth through the microphones.
Last week, Charles Barkley said that Klay Thompson had fallen off from being the premiere two-way guard in the league. Thompson took issue with the claim, ending his postgame press conference last Thursday with an unprompted message for Chuck.
The discourse took another turn following Tuesday night’s 116-109 Warriors loss to the Miami Heat, when Barkley responded to Klay’s postgame comments.
Charles Barkley responds to Klay Thompson's comments from last week:#NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/nd3J3AJFcF
— 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣’ 𝙉𝘽𝘼 (@_Talkin_NBA) November 2, 2022
“I was disappointed that he took it personally,” Barkley said. “I said a few years ago, he was the best two-way guard in the NBA. But because of age and injuries, he’s not the same player. I didn’t say he was a bomb. I’m saying he’s not the same player he was.”
A couple weeks ago, Shaquille O’Neal referred to his “Inside the NBA” co-host as ‘Chucky Two Bills.’
Barkley parlayed a public flirtation with the LIV Golf tour into a reported nine-figure extension with TNT that could be worth nearly $200 million. TNT opened up the checkbook because Barkley has such a big megaphone on the sport’s signature TV show. That’s partly what hurt Klay.
“Gimme some freakin’ time to get that back,” Thompson said. “To hear someone say, ‘He’s not the same as he was prior to the injury,’ it’s like, ‘Duh!’ Who goes through something like that and comes back? I don’t know, it just hurt my heart hearing that, but you know what? I’m gonna internalize and it’s gonna be fuel for me to be even better.”
Chuck isn’t afraid to speak his mind and be proven wrong, but stood his ground on the gist of his comments.
“He says, ‘Give him time.’ No, when you get older, time ain't your friend,” Barkley said. “I love Klay. That’s what bothered me. I love everything about him.”
Thompson is 32 years old and 61 games deep into his return after overcoming a 941-day rehab from ACL and Achilles injuries. Klay is still seeking his first 20-point game of the season and came close Tuesday with 19, but rimmed out two last-minute 3-point attempts and got beaten by Jimmy Butler for a dagger with 9.5 seconds left. He only played in one preseason game and sat out the second leg of this past weekend’s back-to-back.
Fellow co-host Kenny “The Jet” Smith told Chuck that he was making early assumptions.
“He’s saying that he’s on an upward trajectory and he needs the time to get to that point to plateau,” Smith said. “So, you’re judging him off of today and not judging him off of where he thinks he’s going to end up and land.”
Then Shaq got involved.
“I think he woulda liked a little more respect,” Shaq said. “Like he said, give him a little bit more time to get back. Then if I probably don't make it back by playoff time, maybe then you can make that comment. Season just started, rehab.”
But Chuck didn’t back down.
“Guys who have those two series of injuries, he’s just gonna get older,” Barkley said. “When I said he was the best two-way guard in the NBA, those days are over. He can still be a heck of an NBA player. Ernie, we all get old, ain’t nothing wrong with that. But you factor in those two injuries, that’s the only point I was trying to make. … His game, the way he was moving, all that stuff, is really gonna affect him as he gets older.”
In the end, maybe everybody’s right. Klay holds the right to defend himself. Chuck can believe that Klay won’t ever be the top two-way guard in the NBA for the rest of his career. Shaq and Kenny can reserve their judgments til the 2023 playoffs.
If Thompson heard Barkley’s comments the first time, there's a good chance he’ll hear his rebuttal from Tuesday night.
