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Credit: Steam Room, Nightcap
If Charles Barkley is going to accuse LeBron James of ring chasing, then Shannon Sharpe is going to hit Barkley with the same criticism.
Barkley joined Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Colarulo on Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic this week to discuss the NBA offseason. And while projecting where James should play next season, Barkley criticized the four-time NBA champion for ring chasing to catch the “imaginary Michael Jordan ghost,” saying he should just go back to Cleveland.
Ring chasing has been the most common criticism of James since he spurned Cleveland the first time to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami 16 years ago. But Shannon Sharpe believes Barkley is being hypocritical when he calls James out for ring chasing.
“Let me ask you a question. If he goes to the Cavaliers, what are they going to say? He ring chasing,” Sharpe said Thursday on Nightcap. “But here’s the thing: they could say that about Charles. He went to Houston. What was he trying to do in Houston? He linked up with Scottie Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon. What were you trying to do? He was trying to win a ring.
“In all seriousness, yes, he was. Now he can say we was over the hill, but you didn’t think that. If LeBron goes to Miami, what are they going to say? He’s ring chasing. If he goes to Golden State, he’s ring chasing. He goes to Philly, he’s ring chasing. If he goes to the Nuggets, he’s ring chasing. The team that he’s going to is because he wants to win.”
Barkley was ring chasing when he went to Houston. But even Barkley previously admitted that if he won a ring with the Rockets at the end of his career, he “wouldn’t have counted that as a championship.”
Barkley teaming up with Olajuwon and Drexler in 1996 was different than Kevin Durant going to Golden State or LeBron going to Miami. Durant and James were in the prime of their careers when they were accused of ring chasing. Barkley, Olajuwon, and Drexler, even Scottie Pippen when he joined in 1998, were all on the backend of their careers and no longer capable of carrying a team.
Similarly, it’s hard to accuse James of ring chasing at this stage of his career. Obviously, James isn’t going to waste time prolonging his career on a 30-win team. The ring-chasing accusation seems a little less relevant now that James is 41 years old and has accomplished nearly everything anyone could have imagined when he entered the league, including winning a championship for the Cavaliers. But it remains one of the few gripes for LeBron critics to lean on.
The post Shannon Sharpe slams Charles Barkley for accusing LeBron James of ring chasing: ‘He went to Houston’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.
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