10 Days After Charles Barkley?s Load Management Outburst, Allen Iverson Reminds NBA Media of Pending Apology

NBA legend Charles Barkley is no stranger to criticizing players and drawing attention to problems in the league. But he has received some backlash following his load management outburst on TNT’s Inside the NBA. However, Chuckster isn’t the only NBA legend having that opinion. Just days after Barkley’s load management rant, the issue was brought up again by 11x All-Star Allen Iverson.

Iverson shared a clip of former Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas talking about the double standards of the media and fans. But what did Arenas say that caught the eye of Iverson?

It’s not about practice

Even though it has become all too common for players to miss games these days, Allen Iverson faced extreme backlash for ‘just’ missing practice. So Gilbert Arenas brought this point up during one of the episodes of his podcast, ‘No Chill With Gilbert Arenas‘.

Arenas defended Iverson by saying, “Y’all should be apologizing because he missed practice, (but) played in the game. They (current players) are missing games and none of y’all are saying sh*t.” Arenas further claimed that AI always used to give it his all during the games.

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He said, “When the games come, he was there 100%, playing at a thousand miles an hour. He’s giving you his all. And y’all crucify this man for that and now you’re allowing, you’re putting rules in.” To put things into perspective, Iverson played more than 70 games eight times in his career. But he only played all 82 games twice.

The former Wizards star then made a defining statement, saying, “He was missing free practice. They’re missing paid games.”?The clip was shared by Iverson himself with the caption, “But y’all was talking about PRACTICE! Smh Lol Ain’t nothing but love over here lil bro @no.chill.gil. Glad it Came from somebody that know How Hard it is To Kill EVERYNIGHT!”

While load management has become a cause for concern for the league and fans, the NBA has taken certain decisions to put a halt to it. However, it is almost impossible to see any star playing all 82 games in a season these days. But that wasn’t the case before. During his stint in Chicago, the great Michael Jordan played 82 games eight times. Coming from that crop of players, Charles Barkley went off on load management and slammed the current generation.

Charles Barkley didn’t mince his words while slamming load management

Charles Barkley called the state of load management “a joke and a disgrace“. The rise in load management in the NBA, when teams restrict the amount of time their players, who are often stars, play during the regular season in order to guarantee their health for the postseason, has received a lot of attention in recent years.

Barkley blasted out and said, “This is a joke and a disgrace that we?re paying guys $50, 60 million a year to play basketball a few days a week. We’re not steelworkers, or doctors, nurses,” Barkley said. “I’m offended that we’re even having this conversation, to be honest with you.”

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With various NBA stars from years gone by raising an issue with load management and the NBA getting rules in place, we might start seeing more and more stars suiting up on a regular basis. Do you believe there is a bias in the media?