Charles Barkley was not a fan of JJ Redick’s comments on the NBA ratings discourse — comments that took aim at the league’s television partners, which includes Sir Charles’ employers, TNT.
During Thursday’s edition of “Inside the NBA,” Barkley unloaded on Redick as host Ernie Johnson tried to steer the conversation back to highlights.
“[Redick] said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got… yeah, us, like we’re out there jacking up 100 threes a night,” Barkley said. “JJ, you come for the king, you better not miss. Because I can get you, brother. Remember, I got your Lakers games. You can’t hide them flaws they got. You’re just a dead man walking. They got rid of Frank Vogel who did a good job, they got rid of Darvin Ham who did a good job. But you came out there thinking you were gonna change things with that same ugly girl you went on a date with.”
Barkley continued after a valiant effort by Johnson to get things back on track.
”He [Redick] came in there thinking ‘I can make this thing work.’ The hell you can! You can put some makeup on that pig! … The Lakers stink, man. Come on man.”
The comments that set off Barkley came during a pregame media session Redick had with the media last month, via The Athletic’s Sam Amick, where the Los Angeles Lakers head coach said that the storytelling aspect of the game is lacking and the game should be celebrated more.
“If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the television that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product,” Redick said. “And that’s really what has happened over the last 10 to 15 years. I don’t know why. It’s not funny to me.”
“We don’t have anybody that’s willing to step up to the fact that this is an awesome game and we should talk about it and celebrate it in a positive way,” Redick added. “That doesn’t mean we don’t critique it. We should critique it, but we should celebrate it. Nobody’s doing that, and the people that are have a small niche following on Twitter. And frankly, I would argue as well, that everyone in our ecosystem pays too much attention to what is said on Twitter. And part of this whole ratings discussion is because people on Twitter are talking about it.”
The 19-14 Lakers are next scheduled to play on TNT on Thursday, Jan. 26 against the Utah Jazz. Barkley will be on the “Inside the NBA” panel that night and should have plenty to say about Redick’s team’s performance.
