{"id":44387,"date":"2017-01-31T23:06:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T03:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=44387"},"modified":"2020-07-29T23:06:47","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T03:06:47","slug":"lebrowned-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=44387","title":{"rendered":"LeBrowned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a kid doing a lot of growing up in the 90s, Charles Barkley was one of my favorite players.\u00a0 I loved that he was this kind of undersized, pudgy bald guy that still dominated the power forward position with an innate ability to both score and rebound.\u00a0 But I also loved that he was an outspoken rebel of some sort, in an era where MJ, Magic and David Robinson were these saints of positive PR, regardless of how trite and scripted it might have sounded.<\/span><\/p>\n

But now that I\u2019m all old and shit now, Charles Barkley is still a guy that I\u2019ve always enjoyed, and I have to give him credit for managing to be known and relevant to this day, despite the fact that he stopped playing nearly two decades ago by now.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s ragging on referee Dick Bavetta to the point where they actually had a televised foot race<\/a> during halftime at a game, to randomly showing up on a variety of internet videos celebrating his gluttony or paying him to try and shoot three-pointers while inebriated, to his endless criticisms of today\u2019s players compared to the guys of his playing days, Sir Charles has inexplicably managed to stay relevant for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latter that has occurred at such a frequency that Barkley\u2019s been crossing and leaving behind the line that divides him as a tough guy from an era long past, to sounding like a bitter old man, seemingly jealous of the evolved athleticism of today\u2019s game compared to when he played.\u00a0 To some degree, I agree that it\u2019s a different game, a little softer than it used to be, with personalities rampaging way out of control in comparison, but it\u2019s also a whole different world surrounding the game as well, and everything is related in the broader picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Apparently, Barkley has been riding LeBron James a little hard throughout the years, and throughout all this time, LeBron has been taking the high road and keeping his mouth shut.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ll agree with Barkley on the narcissistic \u201cThe Decision\u201d way that LeBron left Cleveland and went to Miami a few years ago, and that LeBron\u2019s more recent going public with comments stating that he wishes the Cavs had a few extra players in order to compete might have been a little soft.\u00a0 But apparently, Barkley\u2019s been barking up the tree for so long that finally, LeBron has had enough, and decided to finally fire back<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to pretend like I\u2019ve been the biggest LeBron James fan throughout his career, and honestly there was a point where I didn\u2019t care about him at all, and wanted to see anyone but him win.\u00a0 However, aside from The Decision, I respect the way LeBron has conducted himself throughout his career, and I respected like hell that he promised a championship to Cleveland and actually delivered it. That\u2019s incredible in today\u2019s professional sports landscape, no matter what way you look at it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But everything in LeBron\u2019s rebuttal to Barkley is 100% true.\u00a0 LeBron never had any disorderly conducts like Barkley has.\u00a0 No documented drunken benders, no showing up to the All-Star Game hungover.\u00a0 Whereas Barkley vehemently stated that he wasn\u2019t to be a role model, LeBron has embraced it, and understood his obligation to be a good role model to all the kids that looked up to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barkley\u2019s remarks about how he, like everyone else, hated when LeBron went to Miami to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and make a super team, are kind of hypocritical, considering Barkley himself attempted to gravy train his way onto a super team, when he joined the Houston Rockets at the tail end of his career, joining with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler with hopes of winning a title.<\/span><\/p>\n

The difference was that an older, declining Barkley joined an older and declining Hakeem and Drexler, and the team ultimately ended up falling to the Utah Jazz in the playoffs, whereas a prime LeBron James joined a prime Dwyane Wade, and won two championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s really where things definitely favor LeBron, and is the one thing that Barkley will never be able to defend against: LeBron won three championships, while Barkley won zero.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charles Barkley can flap his gums all day long criticizing LeBron James, but frankly I think it\u2019s all for naught, and that there are slightly more intelligent choices to direct his old man ire at instead.\u00a0 Obviously, if there is any resolution in LeBron vs. Barkley, it will be an overly-PC, fake-ass meeting where Barkley eats a little crow, LeBron states his respect for his elder, and the two shake-hug before going off camera where they\u2019ll resume their dislike for each other in private.<\/span><\/p>\n

The point of all this is that I think Charles Barkley has barked up the wrong tree, and LeBron James can and has appropriately put him in his place.\u00a0 He held his tongue for years, but there comes a time when enough is enough, and Barkley couldn\u2019t leave well enough alone, and LeBron has begun a verbal counterattack that through just its first wave, has already owned Sir Charles and pushed him back onto his cushy analyst chair.\u00a0 If Barkley is dumb enough to continue, it can only get worse for the Round Mound of Rebound, but damn it, his actions have forced me to take the side of a guy that I\u2019ve mostly been indifferent about his whole career.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid doing a lot of growing up in the 90s, Charles Barkley was one of my favorite players.\u00a0 I loved that he was this kind of undersized, pudgy bald guy that still dominated the power forward position with an innate ability to both score and rebound.\u00a0 But I also loved that … Continue reading LeBrowned<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,83,52],"class_list":["post-44387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-basketball","tag-observations","tag-owned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44389,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44387\/revisions\/44389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}