In case you haven't heard, LeBron James said recently that race played a factor in some of the reaction to his controversial offseason. And you know, sometimes, people have to realize when to just shut up and let things blow over. Now is one of those times if you're LeBron James. Every time he's opened his mouth since The Decision, he's made things worse.
Charles Barkley On LeBron James, Race, And ESPN
And now we’re going to turn this into a debate about race? Oh, God. Even talking about it for a paragraph makes me nauseous. Let’s just hand the baton to Charles Barkley.
Do they give Nobel Prizes for Excellence in Sports Radio? His thoughts after the jump.
Courtesy of Sports Radio Interviews:
"Sometimes you just say he’s making bad decisions and you’re like okay, he’s gonna get it together. Then he makes more bad decisions. The thing that’s interesting about LeBron ... Magic, Michael, and myself, we said we wouldn’t have did it. That’s not a criticism. We were asked a question. I don’t want to play with Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, or Michael, I want to beat them. That’s strictly basketball. The only criticism I’ve heard about LeBron and it was my biggest criticism, that decision thing was just stupid. It was stupid.
The second thing when they all came out there dancing around on stage, that was silly. That’s the only thing I’ve heard LeBron get criticized about. That has nothing to do with race. That’s what makes this last thing so stupid. That’s stupid. The only criticism of LeBron has been the decision and the one hour of our life that we can’t have back.
And ESPN, oh my God. Oh my God. To go down to training camp and report everyday is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. I’m watching yesterday and one of the guys actually said LeBron looked fierce in practice. I’m like fierce in practice? What the hell does that mean? He was fierce in the second day of training camp. You’re like come on man, he really didn’t say that did he. This summer with LeBron and all the stuff that went on is like a bad movie. You just can’t make this stuff up."
Why do we have trouble embracing ESPN and LeBron James? Right there. It’s all there, and it’s pretty refreshing. Why do we love Charles Barkley? Right there. He breaks things down in black-and-white here, and it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with race. Thank God.
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