Charles Barkley Offers Veiled Criticism of NBA’s Latest Controversial Endeavour

With the start of the new in-season tournaments in the NBA, the controversy surrounding the league is indeed the talk of the town. Regarding the new endeavor, Adam Silver is all over the headlines for his statement regarding how the NBA could scale its audience through this new venture. However, as is usually the case with most things related to the league, NBA legend Charles Barkley had some choice words of his own.

Silver’s opinions might be looking to boost the NBA’s popularity, but that might not be how the legends who have played for decades on the court seem to see it. As far as Barkley is concerned, the ex-player does have some serious concerns about the new concept.

Charles Barkley finds the new courts interesting 

The in-season tournament kicked off this Friday, and indeed, it has raised some eyebrows. With the introduction of new courts for all 30 teams in the league, the fans were curious about the new design. However, some couldn’t settle for the idea of out-of-the-box designs over traditional ones. In an interaction with the host on ‘The Better Angle’, the legend says a lot about the push for new courts for all 30 teams.

Charles Barkley said, “You know, that’s a really good load of questions… Tryna get me some trouble. You know this is something new; obviously, it is. It started yesterday. The courts are interesting, to say the least. You know, I just hope that they are successful, but then that’s the thing. The success in basketball helps our brand, but man, those courts are ‘Whoooo!’. They are something.”

Well, the new courts complement the new city edition uniforms and the emerging hype. With the introduction of new courts featuring a colorful strip running from end to end with the tournament trophy in the center of the court, some veterans have laughed out at the seriousness of the innovation.

The idea on the rear end is to scale the audience on a major scale. With the end goal of selling the tournament to a big-time media sponsor, there is a lot to unfold here.

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The in-season tournament and all the hype 

It’s an open secret that the 82-game season doesn’t carry that much viewership until it’s late Christmas and the players start coming off the rust. After all, the playoffs are all that matters. The NBA in-season tournaments are all about engaging people on Tuesdays and Fridays. These days are specifically chosen because they are non-traditional football nights.

Apart from this, the semi-finals are placed purposefully on a non-college football field. All this is done to develop a larger audience. And in order to differentiate these games from the entire season, the transition in the designs is done.

However, with such unusual reactions from fans and veterans, the NBA Commissioner might take a second guess at his decision. Stay tuned for the latest updates on this story. 

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