Draymond Green made his return to Inside the NBA on Wednesday for the first time in a while, and it didn’t take long before the conversation got a little awkward between Green and the show’s star, Charles Barkley.
About halfway through the pregame show ahead of ESPN’s broadcast of Game 2 between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks, Inside pivoted to what was, effectively, an interview with Green about his future with the Golden State Warriors. When it was Barkley’s turn to chime in, he stated quite bluntly that the Warriors’ run was over.
“It’s over for the Warriors,” Barkley said. “No disrespect. It is for every old team. You have your run, you get old … it just passed you by. Y’all had one of the greatest runs ever.”
Given a chance to respond, Green acknowledged the future is uncertain, but didn’t seem to appreciate Barkley’s negativity.
As the conversation progressed, Green sniped back with a shot at Barkley’s final years in the NBA.
“I think the goal is just to not look like you in the Houston Rockets uniform,” Green said with a smirk.
While Barkley offered a meek “yeah” in response, he notably did not speak the rest of the segment.
As Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch noted, the back-and-forth had a sharper tone than the usual joking on Inside, which often is between Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.
“Barkley’s criticisms aren’t *usually* intended to be insulting (there are definitely exceptions). But Draymond’s retorts have that personal aspect,” he wrote on X.
The last time Green’s overly critical perspective overtook a broadcast was last year’s NBA All-Star weekend, when he trashed the format of the game and mocked LeBron James for not participating. Green was widely criticized for the commentary (including by Barkley), and it led us at Awful Announcing to wonder whether Green’s expected post-career leap to TNT Sports might be in jeopardy.
Fortunately, the discussion between Green and Barkley stayed on course, but the tone noticeably changed after Green became defensive. While other issues with Green on-air have centered on his disrespect toward others, this may be a lesson in the necessity of a great TV personality to be able to laugh at themselves, especially in sports television, and especially on a show like Inside the NBA.
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