The Golden State Warriors are far from the team they once were. Ironically, most of their championship core is still there; they’re just not playing up to their usual standards. Outside of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, their NBA championship core has underperformed.
Needless to say, plenty of their haters are having a great time because of this. They spent almost a decade calling them a ‘jump-shooting’ team and blaming them for the pace-and-space offensive revolution.
The Warriors made a lot of enemies along the way, especially when they signed Kevin Durant. That’s what happens when you become the undisputed team to beat in the league and have a significant edge over the rest of the competition.
Notably, Charles Barkley has been one of his fiercest critics. Recently, he took yet another shot at them, telling former GM Bob Myers that he wanted to “give him credit for jumping off the Titanic before it sunk,” adding that he’ll “see his friends from the Warriors soon,” implying that they wouldn’t even make the playoffs.
Charles Barkley playing for the Phoenix Suns.
Charles Barkley Says The Warriors Are ‘Cooked’
Barkley doubled down on his criticism of the Warriors. He claimed that they shouldn’t even have beaten the Sacramento Kings in the first round and that Stephen Curry’s stellar Game 7 was the only reason they pulled it off:
“As I told y’all, this team is cooked. Y’all thought I was crazy,” Barkley said. “They got away last year because Steph went crazy in Game 7. Sacramento should have beat them.”
Now, Barkley believes Father Time will start catching up to Curry, which is why he doesn’t see them going back to the mountaintop with the way the roster is constructed:
“Steph, he’s gonna start slowing down soon,” Barkley added. “They’ve got an old team; everybody slows down. He’s not gonna be able to continue to do that because those other guys aren’t the same, either. They’re older. This team is cooked. They’re not a contender.”
Klay Thompson.
Thompson Is Tired Of Barkley
Unsurprisingly, those comments didn’t sit well with Klay Thompson. He’s been his biggest critic, but he’s never cared for Barkley’s comments or the outside noise, and he didn’t hesitate to hit back at the Hall of Famer:
“The only frustration with that is will this guy ever give us any credit?” Thompson told The Athletic. “You know how hard this is to do? Annually? You’d think Charles would understand how hard it is to win a championship. To do that annually? And we’re still here. What are we — 10 and 12? There’s 60 freaking regular season games left. But he’s been hating on us since 2015. So this is no surprise.”
Thompson acknowledged that the criticism is fair right now because they haven’t played up to their level. Nonetheless, they shouldn’t even bat an eye thinking about what Charles Barkley has to say about them:
“It’s probably warranted,” Thompson said. “But I can’t subscribe to that stuff though. I’ve been in this business so long. You just got to do what you can do every day to get better. Can’t listen to the outside noise. It’ll drive you nuts. Just work on yourself. Be the best you can for your team. Psshh. Charles Barkley. That’s hilarious.”
see also
Stephen Curry, Steve Kerr patience running out with the Warriors
At the end of the day, the only thing they can do to prove the doubters wrong is to win basketball games. They haven’t done that often this season, but they’re a championship-caliber team that has been there and done that way too many times; they just need to figure things out.
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