Charles Barkley ring-chased long before Durant

Charles Barkley has criticized Kevin Durant for his decision to leave the OKC Thunder. He seems to have forgotten that he did the same thing several times.

Charles Barkley is great television.

A Hall of Fame player, he’s not quite the same as an analyst, often giving uninformed opinions about games and players he clearly has never watched. But people tune in to watch because he’s very entertaining. When Barkley speaks, people will listen. For one reason or another.

He’s extremely outspoken with an opinion on everyone and everything. He starts, in his slow Southern drawl, “look, look…” and often times ends with “he too small, Ernie!” His outlook on basketball is stuck over twenty years in the past, unwilling to adapt to how the game has changed.

It’s archaic.

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Players from that era associate greatness with some masculine pride. It’s not enough to win, you have to win like a man! Players have to abide by weird unwritten rules in order for their championships to be “valid.” Seemingly, you have to get drafted, win immediately, never have a bad game, have Hall of Fame teammates drafted around you, and rack up championships.

Basically, you have to be Michael Jordan or, rather, the Michael Jordan that basketball fans choose to remember.

Charles Barkley wasn’t Jordan. Far from it. In fact, he even lost to Jordan multiple times including the 1993 NBA Finals. He could never get over that hump and win a ring despite being a great player. An MVP that couldn’t hold the Larry O’Brien trophy, Barkley seems more equipped than anyone to sympathize with players who make free agency decisions with winning titles in mind.

But, for whatever reason, he doesn’t.

Kevin Durant, a top three player in the world, has decided to take his talents to the Bay Area to join the Golden State Warriors. He’s leaving his OKC Thunder that blew 3-1 lead over the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Instead of remaining with the franchise that drafted him, he’s teaming up with the two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Durant, a player without a ring, is joining a team with a title and a historic 73 win season were four points away from overcoming an incredible LeBron James performance from repeating as champions. And people hate it.

Barkley, of course, chimed in as the unofficial leader of all of basketball Twitter’s trolls. He was on ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike and gave his two cents on the Durant exodus:

"“I was disappointed. I was disappointed like I was disappointed when LeBron went to Miami. Kevin is a terrific player. He’s a good kid. But just disappointed with the fact that he weakened another team and he’s gonna kind of gravy train on a terrific Warriors team. Just disappointed from a competitive standpoint. Because just like it meant more to LeBron to win one in Cleveland, it would mean more to Kevin to win one in Oklahoma than it would be in Golden State.”"

Many people share this sentiment, believing that Durant doesn’t have the right to choose where he lives and works for the sake of bringing glory to a franchise that he doesn’t owe anything to. He gave them nine incredible years, energizing the city while immersing himself in the community. The team never showed a willingness to build a winner around him so he left.

Barkley’s words are hypocritical. He’s criticizing Durant’s choice to try to increase his chance at winning and yet, he lacks the self-awareness to remember that he did the same. Not once, but twice.

The Round Mound of Rebound had established himself as one of the league’s biggest stars as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. He became an All-Star, but he couldn’t lead Philly to the promised land. He continued to lose to teams like the Boston Celtics and Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Eventually, after not making the playoffs in the 1991-92 season, Barkley requested a trade.

He forced himself to the Phoenix Suns, a team that finished fourth in the Western Conference the year before. He won the league’s Most Valuable Player in his first year in Phoenix, leading the Suns to the NBA Finals where they lost to the Chicago Bulls, the team that stopped him in the East.

In both the 1994 and 1995 playoffs, Barkley’s Suns held a playoff series lead over Hakeem Olajuwon‘s Houston Rockets. Both times, the Rockets won, overcoming a 2-0 deficit in ’94 and a 3-1 deficit in ’95. Houston would go on to win the NBA Finals in both of those seasons.

He lost in 1996 in the first round to the San Antonio Spurs and forced a trade to the Rockets that had beaten him twice. He was unhappy in Phoenix and claimed that if he wasn’t traded to a championship contender, he’d retire. It was his lost shot at a title.

So he joined Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, two of the top 50 players of All-Time, in Texas. It’s also relevant to note that Drexler was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers and after growing unhappy, demanded a trade to a contender. Before Sir Charles was traded he said, “the best thing about it would be getting the chance to play with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. We would be very formidable.”

So the Rockets built a big three, a super team of sorts. And it didn’t work.

But it’s clear that Barkey was ring-chasing. According to his own logic, wouldn’t this be worse than Durant’s move? Barkley was a star in Philadelphia and, after being unable to beat the Bulls, left for the Western Conference. Again, he lost to the Bulls on the biggest stage in Phoenix before losing to the Rockets twice in years that they were champions. He then formed a star-studded team in Houston.

He ran away from the competition then joined them when he couldn’t beat them.

I respect Barkley’s desire to win a championship. I, personally, have no problem with his ring chasing. He’s a Hall of Famer and players should have a right to give themselves the best possible chance at winning. But people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, right?

Next: Ray Allen to Warriors?

And there’s a huge difference between what Barkley did and what Durant’s doing. Chuck was trying to ride two other players to a title. Durant is trying to lift a great team to being the greatest ever. He’s in a position to be the best or second best player on the best basketball squad ever assembled.

Barkley’s criticism is odd, but expected. Ideally, he’d sympathize with a player who doesn’t want to be labeled as a loser, a great player who just couldn’t get it done. Maybe he should look in the mirror sometime.