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Gilbert Arenas Makes Surprising Charles Barkley Accusation

More NBA media beef.

Kyle Koster

Gilbert Arenas shared his thoughts about Charles Barkley.
Gilbert Arenas shared his thoughts about Charles Barkley. / Gil Arenas Show on X
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Hall of Fame forward Charles Barkley went hard after the Los Angeles Lakers and their coach, J.J. Redick, while appearing on Inside the NBA last week.

This whole mess started with everyone weighing in on what has been a 3% decline in NBA ratings from last year, sharing their opinions for why what is really not that significant of a drop could occur. It was made worse when Barkley caught wind of a comment Redick made last month about the league's broadcast partners not doing a great job celebrating the game. And honestly it may never end because the topic is a natural jumping-off point for anyone with a podcast microphone.

Former All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas actually has several on hand for his crew, and used one to respond to Barkley responding to Redick who was responding to Barkley who... you get the picture.

"See, that's the problem with Charles, he don't actually watch basketball," Arenas said. "They be telling him what to say in his ear. So he doesn't even realize (that) when he said it, they was actually four or five. So, they were actually better than last year at the same time frame. What Charles is saying, ah, he should have waited."

It's an interesting angle for Arenas to take. Yes, Barkley can sometimes not convey the most up-to-date or comprehensive knowledge of the league and no one thinks he's locked on Xs and Os 24/7, but he does watch a lot of basketball. There's no way to do the job without watching a lot of basketball.

And those people who would be in Barkley's ear would be producers. Inside the NBA has some of the best in the business and that's what they are there for. It'd be nice to say everyone will get on board and have fun with some great professional basketball, but there are too many hours to fill and eyeballs to capture for that to happen.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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