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Charles Barkley thinks the NBA is at its worst

By Charles Rahrig V

May 20, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Former NBA player and current TNT television personality Charles Barkley prior to game one of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs between the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
May 20, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Former NBA player and current TNT television personality Charles Barkley prior to game one of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs between the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /
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Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley thinks that the NBA is at the worst level that it has ever been.

In the history of basketball, there have been very few individuals that have had the amount of opinions that Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has had. While Barkley has made some great points with his opinions and has also had some terrible opinions in his career, he isn’t afraid to provide plenty of thoughts on all matters.

That’s the beauty of Barkley and he has plenty of opinions on the current talent level of the league. While on Phoenix ESPN affiliate 98.7 FM’s Bickley & Marotta, Barkely talked about the current talent level in the league and just how bad it is.

According to Barkley, the league is top-heavy and while there are some great teams, there are a ton of bad teams and bad players in the league.

"“People think us old guys hate when we talk about it. It has nothing to do with the Warriors’ greatness, LeBron’s greatness. But I’ve never seen the NBA as bad as it is, and I’ve been saying it the last three or four years. We’ve got too many young players coming out of college that don’t know how to play. It’s frustrating for me because I want to see competitive basketball.“We took a survey on our crew … How many actual NBA teams would you buy season tickets for? Four in the west and Cleveland obviously in the east. That’s not good for our league.”“People think us old guys hate when we talk about it. It has nothing to do with the Warriors’ greatness, LeBron’s greatness. But I’ve never seen the NBA as bad as it is, and I’ve been saying it the last three or four years. We’ve got too many young players coming out of college that don’t know how to play. It’s frustrating for me because I want to see competitive basketball.“We took a survey on our crew … How many actual NBA teams would you buy season tickets for? Four in the west and Cleveland obviously in the east. That’s not good for our league.”"

While Barkley usually has some outlandish opinions, this one by Barkley makes a ton of sense. Parity has never been a strong suit for basketball in the history of the NBA, but now there’s even less parity than there was ever before.

Part of it can be attributed to players not remaining in college and therefore making it tougher to assess where they are at talent wise. It also can be attributed to the fact that the top markets are where players want to play to build their brands and the over-expansion of the league has left some small-market teams out to dry.

There are really only four or five championship contenders in the league each year now, whereas when Barkley played, there might have been 10 to 12 teams that could have been considered contenders to win an NBA Championship.

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