During TNT’s first game between the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, Charles Barkley said something about both teams that had plenty of folks shaking their heads on twitter.
“Two of the worst defenses in the league” were the words spoken by the long-time analyst, despite the fact that Houston is ranked seventh on defense, while Phoenix is a bit lower at 17th overall. To be fair to Barkley, who has a tendency to make comments as if he were a casual fan of the NBA at times, the final score of the contest was 127-118, so it was easy to say that both teams weren’t too focused on playing shut-down defense, at least on this particular night.
Daryl Morey, ever so defensive about his team and the way it has been built, was quick to dish out some harsh criticism towards Barkley:
Best part of being at a TNT game live is it is easy to avoid Charles spewing misinformed biased vitriol disguised as entertainment
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 11, 2015
The tweet was then shown on Inside the NBA after the double-header, and all hell broke loose from there.
It started with this comment from Barkley: “I’m not worried about Daryl Morey. He’s one of those idiots who believe in analytics.”
Some of the notable comments during Barkley’s epic rant:
“No good team gives up 118 points.” (Tom Haberstroh of ESPN had a great retaliation for this particular comment)
“I’ve always believed analytics is crap and you know I never mention the Rockets as a legitimate contender because they’re not. I wouldn’t know Daryl Morey if he walked in this room right now.”
“Analytics don’t work at all. It’s just some crap some people who were really smart made up to try to get in the game cause they had no talent. Because they had no talent to be able to play. Smart guys wanted to fit in, so they made up some term called analytics. “
“They’re a bunch of guys who had never played the game, and they never got the girls in high school, they just wanted to get in the game.”
Tell us what you really think, Chuck.
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Jim Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog