Charles Barkley has become one of the most popular and likeable sports media personalities in the NBA and across the sports world in recent years, and in large part that's because he's the polar opposite of the modern-day cliched commentator.
Barkley is incredibly honest and never holds back on his opinions on players, games, teams, situations, etc. He brings a different type of opinion to the media world, and it is often welcomed.
However, the nature of his straightforward approach means that when he misses the mark, Really It misses the mark.
His criticisms of modern players are legion. For every example of a player being rightfully criticized for playing poorly in a game, there is another example of Barkley playing the veteran role and being spiteful or jealous of players in the current league. It is usually the bigger players who get criticized. A player like Joel Embiid. Anthony Davis and Rudy Gobert They are often the targets of such unfair criticism.
on wednesday, Berkeley appeared on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” We talked about a lot of things and ended up meeting Caitlin Clark. WNBA Towards the end of his argument.
Barkley, who never takes things half-heartedly, blasted the WNBA for how poorly it handled Clark's integration into the league.
“These women, I'm a WNBA fan, but they couldn't have done anything worse with Kaitlyn Clark. If you got all of them in a room, if you got all of these guys in a room and said, 'Let's destroy the WNBA,' you wouldn't come up with the grand plan that they did. This girl is incredible. What she's done for women's basketball in college, what she's doing in the WNBA, the amount of attention she's brought to college and the pros, for these women to have this petty jealousy, you said it yourself. 'Damn, what the hell is going on?'”
Ah Charles, you're so close to the real point here, you just don't know it.
Can you imagine veterans who helped build the game harshly criticizing young players coming into the league, not giving them the recognition they deserve, coming across as petty and jealous?
That certainly won't happen in the NBA.
The irony of Barclay's comments – and there are many sides to the irony – is that he began the segment talking about the need for commentators to be objective and not be influenced by personal feelings.
Berkeley was many things, but objectivity was not one of them, and that is one of the reasons he became so popular.
Caitlin Clark's integration into the WNBA was not a smooth one, and despite bringing the WNBA a level of attention and fame never before seen in the league's history, she was not a universally beloved figure in women's basketball or the WNBA.
Don't expect that. Have To like Caitlin Clark you would have to acknowledge what she's done for the game, but other than that feel however you like about her, rightly or wrongly.
Even if some people — players, coaches, former players, media members — dislike her, it's never going to reflect negatively on the league. In fact, it's hard to know what Barkley is referring to, considering he didn't say anything specific.
Could he be referring to Sheryl Swoopes, who has come under increasing scrutiny? To Caitlin Clark Does she have any right? Or 5 significant fouls Has Clark been on the receiving end this season?
Neither example, whether it is one or the other that Berkeley is referring to, seems to have done anything to diminish Clark's work and W's growth.
The league is now A statement from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert: — signed a “monumental” TV deal this summer that will pay them $2.2 billion over the next 11 years. Whether you measure it by TV viewership, social media impressions or anything in between, there's more attention on the product than ever before. Swoops, hard fouls, whatever else Barkley is referring to, haven't “messed up” the WNBA.
The league is moving forward at a rapid pace and Caitlin Clark is one of many players at the forefront of it all. Any notion that she is the sole reason for its success or that the league is somehow treating her unfairly is simply untrue.
The league pushed Clarke to the forefront, making her the face of the league right away by having her appear on national TV games and promoting her and the Fever from the start of this season. Perhaps at times early in the season, they overdid it a little. They gambled on her being a star, and now they're reaping the rewards.
With more attention being given to the WNBA, more people are talking about it than ever before, so is this a mishandling of the situation?
Absent from the women competing in the Olympics was Caitlin Clark, who deserves praise and accolades for pushing the league forward.
And even if It's not just the WNBA where veterans and former players have been vocal about not welcoming Clark back to the league.
When fellow top draft pick and prospect Lonzo Ball made his Lakers debut in 2017, Patrick Beverley was there to greet him and physically welcome him to the league for his debut game, and all anyone could talk about was Lonzo's “Welcome to the NBA” moment.
Players shouldn't expect to welcome a rookie into the league. This is a competitive sport with the best players in the world competing at their craft. They'll push a player like Clark to prove she deserves all the praise and accolades. And she ultimately did just that.
Charles Barkley shouldn't be blaming people for not welcoming a new generation of players. On the same podcast where he criticized the WNBA's response to Clark's debut season, he also spent a lot of time complaining about the workload management of NBA players and lamenting that they have it much easier than his generation.
Ultimately, Berkeley is trying to make a valid point about how pettiness and jealousy can take away from something special, even though he doesn't realize he's talking to himself.
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