It's been done to death at this point, but perhaps the last word is always most forthcoming. Eh. More LeBron. Sorry, ya he(a)rd. Over the weekend, whilst playing golf, the NBA's preeminent G.O.A.T. Michael Jordan (if you didn't know) muttered something about never, eeeeeeeeeeever doing what LeBron did. LeBron decided to take his talents to Miami (if you didn't know). Charles Barkley couldn't resist piping up and chiming in. It's like LeBron is a nice, juicy sausage and Charles is the slavering lips of today's media.
Okay, Sir Charles is kind of our patron saint here at OtB, and for all my protracted absences, I still remember that. Still, I have a hard time not taking him to task for these comments:
"Let me just tell you this," Barkley said. "Mike and I are in 100 percent agreement on this. If you're the two-time defending NBA MVP, you don't leave anywhere. They come to you. That's ridiculous.
"I like LeBron. He's a great player. But I don't think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people."Excuse me? Ex-cuuuuuuuse me? Vickie Guerrero excuse me!?!? Sure, Charles isn't a two-time defending MVP of the NBA and never was, but he was a one-time, defending all-star game MVP who was then traded from Philadelphia to Phoenix. Then, he was a one-time, though not defending, league MVP who was traded from a title-less Phoenix team to Houston. Let me see. Who was on that Houston team? Oh yeah, only all time great Clyde Drexler and perhaps the man owning the most beautiful post game ever and two-time champ as alpha-dawg Hakeem Olajuwon. I'm not saying much. I'm just saying these stars aligning all "of a sudden"? There's a precedence, and Charles should know that. I seem to recall Scottie Pippen bringing his oversized contract through Houston at some point too...
