“He Does Annoy Me at Times on the Court”: Charles Barkley Opens Up on His Infamous Feud With Golden State Warriors Star

Draymond Green is no stranger to beefing with former NBA legends. Even now, he is on a seemingly never-ending squabble with Shaquille O’Neal. However, his other quarrel with Charles Barkley seems to have come to an end, atleast for now. TNT’s new show ‘The Arena’ has both of them as panelists. In the first episode, they seem to have put an end to their fight.

Co-host Cari Champion asked Barkley to address the “Can Chuck and Draymond get along?” question, something that has been trending ever since the lineup for the show was announced.

Barkley said, “I respect him. He’s a hell of a player. I’m just having fun on television. When you’re on from 8-2:30 in the morning, you’re just like I gotta have some fun now.

“I was actually annoyed; I was watching some of the guys in the media the last few days talking about (if) Chuck and Draymond are gonna get along. Of course, we’re gonna get along. I’m never gonna fight another NBA player, even when I criticize him I’m not going to fight. I’m too old to fight. I’ve said it many times, I like Draymond. He does annoy me at times on the court. You’ve got to ask him has he ever committed a foul.”

Draymond Green and Charles Barkley have mutual respect

When Champion asked Green how he felt about Barkley, he explained what was going on in his mind. “I respect him. The issue I’ve had is that a lot of people watch the game of basketball and they don’t know what they’re looking at.”

He then talked about how players are affected by this and mentioned former teammate JaVale McGee as an example.

“So when they look at a Chuck or at different guys who have this platform, they take what you’re saying and they listen to that and they run with that. For me, it hasn’t necessarily affected my pockets. But there are a lot of guys in this league that people run with what guys say on these platforms, and it affects guys’ pockets.” 

Draymond also added that he understood what Barkley said was part of his job, but he has accomplished enough. “I understand that there’s a job to do. But I also know I’ve done too many great things in this league and won a lot to hear some of the stuff he (is) saying about me.”