“I say this respectfully, Joel Embiid will never win a championship until he gets his mind and his attitude right.” Shaquille O’Neal being critical of players is nothing new. But even Charles Barkley’s comments sometimes hit a nerve with the NBA stars. In fact, even LeBron James was not a fan of Chuck’s criticism in the past. Similarly, a former teammate of LeBron, explained why he was upset with the 76ers legend.

“I was tight with Charles. Chuck, he went too far in one day. When we played Memphis, my rookie year, he was just like ‘He shooting anything’ and I was like, ‘Fam, you wasn’t on the sideline ’cause out here, I was scared.'” Iman Shumpert didn’t like Charles Barkley’s comments, despite them being close to the truth.

“I don’t do scared, I don’t do fear. And yeah I crashed out that game I like 5 for 20, I was crashing out dog.” The former NBA champion admitted to shooting poorly against the Grizzlies in his rookie year when his efficiency from the field was just 25%. He scored 12 points but shooting 5/20, is where Barkley, was tough.

On the Big Podcast, the former Cleveland star explained how other players perceive Shaquille O’Neal’s judgment, “‘Cause he usually I ain’t going to lie, you pretty fair, you pretty fair.” Then, the co-host of the podcast, Adam Lefkoe, asked Shumpert about the reaction of players, especially in line after Shaquille O’Neal‘s comments. “Big guys be hurt.” Later at the end, he stated, “But when he (Charles Barkley) say stuff, big guys definitely check in.”

During the conversation, the former teammate of LeBron James explained that players might not agree with the opinion publically, “Man it’s always the old, always come back hating.” But internally, they work on it. Speaking about hating, let’s look back at how LeBron dissed Charles Barkley‘s comments.

King James had receipts and questioned Charles Barkley’s credibility

The issue was after the Cavaliers won the 2016 championship, and were struggling the next season. They added a few players through free agency, and one thing about those changes was reportedly due to the involvement of LeBron James. So Charles Barkley questioned the method of the 4x NBA champions, calling them “Inappropriate.”

“He’s the best player in the world. Does he want all of the good players? He don’t want to compete?” Naturally, the Akron native was tired of such narratives and made it clear that the 76ers legend crossed the line. “He’s a hater…What makes what he says credible? Because he’s on TV?… I’m not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that.”

It did not end here. James also brought up Barkley’s controversial moments from his career. “I’m not the one who threw somebody through a window… I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas.” And much more was said by the 4x MVP. Earlier this year, Charles Barkley gave a candid reply to those remarks from the Lakers superstar. While he was fine with the response, he pointed out that he never went personal.

However, James felt otherwise at the time, and even his former teammate, Iman Shumpert. So, the comments from Chuck might be straight as an arrow, but they leave a mark, even if the TNT analyst might not mean it.