Kevin Durant and Charles Barkley are going at each other’s throats once again.
Following the Golden State Warriors’ championship run, Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer turned popular basketball analyst, said Durant needs to be the “bus driver” of his team to gain respect among the “old heads.”
“Until he is the guy on a championship, we’re not going to ever give him the respect that he probably deserves,” Barkley said on ESPN’s “Get Up!” on Friday. “The game hasn’t changed. Kobe said it, LeBron said it, we’re going to hold him to the same high standard.”
Durant, who has been called out about his legacy plenty of times before, saw those comments and fired back at the hall of fame player on Twitter.
“All this [expletive] is nasty, another terrible analogy from a hatin old head that can’t accept that we making more bread than them. It’s just timing Chucky, don’t hate the playa.”
The Warriors, who had won a championship in 2015, signed Durant in July 2016. And he won back-to-back titles with Golden State in 2017 and 2018.
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“[Durant] joined that team that already won a championship, no disrespect, that’s just a fact,” Barkley said.
Durant, who won the league’s MVP award in 2014 with the Thunder and won two Finals MVP awards with the Warriors, decided to leave the Bay Area and sign with Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving. It has not worked out in the years since.
The 12-time all-star averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 6.4 assists. Durant had played himself into the MVP conversation prior to his injury this season.
