Charles Barkley was a guest on ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd on Wednesday, and claimed that the Golden State Warriors would have been mauled 25 years ago.
Everyone knows that Charles Barkley isn’t a fan of jump shooting basketball teams in the playoffs. He doesn’t think it can work when the physicality of the playoffs changes come May. So when the Golden State Warriors proved that a jump shooting team can win a championship, Barkley has had to eat his words ever since.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the former NBA MVP and Hall of Famer from talking about the Warriors and the way that they play basketball. Barkley was a guest on FS1’s ‘The Herd’ on Wednesday, and he discussed with Colin Cowherd the Golden State Warriors and whether or not their style of play would have worked 25 years ago.
According to Barkley, the Warriors would have been mauled 25 years ago, had they played when Barkley and others played. Barkley equated it to the new rules of the NFL, where defensive backs can’t touch wide receivers and basically are at a disadvantage. While many might disagree with Barkley’s views about the Warriors, he is right when he says that the rules of the league now benefit shooters and they can have space to make their shots.
Back when guys like Barkley played, defense was played differently and guys could get away with hand-checks and a lot more on defense to stifle the offenses of opposing teams. Does that mean the Warriors wouldn’t have survived back then? Certainly not. If a player can shoot the way that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson do, then it doesn’t matter what era they came up in, they would have a place in this league.
Now would it have been enough to win a championship back when things were more physical? That’s certainly a big question that we will unfortunately never know the answer to. The answer we do know is that the Warriors play a beautiful brand of basketball every night, and getting to watch greatness unfold is a privilege.