LOS ANGELES — NBA legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley criticized JJ Redick for comments he made a few weeks ago – and the Lakers coach, apparently, couldn’t care less.
During the Thursday broadcast of the “Inside the NBA” studio show, Barkley made it clear he took exception to part of Redick’s response when he was asked about the discourse surrounding the state of the league ahead of the Lakers’ Dec. 19 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
“I don’t think we as, and by we, I was part of it, we as the sort of national partners have done a good job of storytelling, of celebrating the game,” Redick, who was an NBA analyst for ESPN from 2021-24, said at the time. “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 gonna watch the product.
“And that’s really what has happened over the last 10-15 years. I don’t know why. It’s not funny to me. Nothing is entertaining to me. This game should be celebrated.”
Those comments appeared to irk Barkley – although Redick didn’t directly name any show or broadcaster in his criticisms.
“He said something about we’re the reason people ain’t watching this crappy product we got,” Barkley said on Thursday. “Yeah, us. Like we’re out there jacking up a hundred 3s a night. 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 going to change things with that same ugly girl you went on a date with. The Lakers stink. He 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.”
Redick addressed Barkley’s comments ahead of Friday’s home game against the Atlanta…
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