With the Brooklyn Nets on the verge of elimination against the Boston Celtics, Charles Barkley didn’t waste his chance to take a shot at Kevin Durant. He called him a ‘bus-rider’, all but undermining the two rings he won with the Golden State Warriors.
Durant has faced plenty of backlash since leaving OKC. Some people claim he took the easy way out by joining Stephen Curry and the best team in the league, putting an asterisk next to his two rings.
That’s not the case with Gilbert Arenas. If anything, the former All-Star believes Barkley was way out of line with his comments. He called him out because, unlike KD, he never even won a championship.
NBA News: Gilbert Arenas Fires Back At Charles Barkley Over ‘Bus-Riding’ Comments
(Transcript via Fadeaway World)
“I think old school is having a problem with who they were. You gotta remember the new school is watching everything. We’re watching you get teased by Shaquille O’Neal every chance you get that you haven’t won a championship. What do you think? The new school of I don’t want to be that. … You trumped me with the ring every time we get to argue. You see it, Shaq does one of these. Now, as a player, I need that. You can’t Trump me with rings. Just like with Kevin Durant, Charles Barkley can’t say nothing to him. He pulls the ring like I got the ring. I got two of them. I got the two Finals MVPs.”
“That’s where, like, you don’t want to be; in that category. So you want to be a bus driver to the point where I want to get to the destination. So if I need someone to help me drive the bus a little bit better, okay. I’m not gonna wait until I’m on my last leg, which Charles Barkley did. So when all these guys go I didn’t try to win it, yeah you did. You tried to go to Houston. You went to Houston to try to win a championship.”
Maybe there’s some middle ground to this. Saying KD didn’t win a real ring is unfair, inaccurate, and flat-out hating. But Chuck is also right to some extent, and the fact that he was never a champion doesn’t make his comments less true.