“This Country, We Can’t Simply Disagree”: Charles Barkley Details Disappointment Around Darvin Ham & Bell Belichick

After Darvin Ham’s ouster from the Lakers, several NBA analysts and veterans have pointed out the lack of responsibility that teams are displaying as a group. One of the most loud and relevant voices from the criticizing end is former 11x NBA All-Star Charles Barkley. The ex-power forward revealed his thoughts about all the coach-firing from the teams in a little bit of discomfort on The Steam Room podcast. While voicing his concerns regarding coach termination, he mentioned some famous names like Frank Vogel, Darvin Ham, and Mike Budenholzer.

While talking about former coaches, Barkley claimed that they “did not deserve to get fired.” The Ex-NBA legend further emphasized, “Listen man, players and general managers, y’all gotta take some responsibility and have come patience, coz’ what’s going on right now, I don’t think it’s fair to these coaches, at all,” he meant to own up for the losses and trade mistakes. Interestingly, it is right from a different perspective. A team is made up of all sorts of persons, each having a different role. Therefore, a failure or blunder can’t be entirely handed to a single person.

Further talking about such disappointments, Barkley also referred to the former NFL coach of the New England Patriots Bill Belichick. Before delving further, he confirmed, “Belichick’s a great friend”. Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft’s strained relationship is well known in the football fanbase. However, the situation got tense a bit more when, during the Netflix documentary The Dynasty, players who praised Belichick witnessed their footage cut from the final edit. However, when Barkley talked about it in his podcast, the tables turned, and he saw something unexpected. Later on, he saw a cut from the documentary in which Kraft thanked Bill for being the greatest coach.

Despite the differences, Kraft acknowledged Bill. However, Barkley agreed that the current scenario in the NBA is not the same as he said, “We all disagree with people, we all disagree…This country, we can’t simply disagree.”

Amid bold claims regarding the NBA, Is Charles Barkley leaving TNT?

Charles Barkley has been a vocal center for raising issues concerning the NBA league and its teams on his TNT show “Inside The NBA.” The show, with a panel including Ernie Johnson Jr., Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith, gives the essence of game analysis and predictions to NBA fans. However, one of the most dominating panels for NBA fans might disintegrate, as TNT is not a part of the NBA’s television deal from the next season onwards. The league’s contracts with ESPN/ABC and TNT are set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season.

Though Barkley will keep his bond close with the association, it will not be so close with TNT. He revealed in an interview with ESPN Cleveland that he had put in an opt-out clause in his contract with TNT for such situations. So if TNT parts ways with the NBA, which is quite certain to happen in 2025, Barkley will have the option to step out from the channel. Recently, other broadcasters like Amazon Prime and NBC have also entered the competition.

Back in 2022, when he and his fellow panelists inked new contracts, he recently remembered mentioning, “I said, ‘If you guys lose the NBA, I want to make sure I can get out of here.’ So I am actually in a really great position.”

For now, it is just part of a legal contract rather than a public confirmation. Till then, Sir Charles will continue to guide the NBA community with his insights and raise concerns on issues like coach termination on a single call.