Charles Barkley Slams Warriors’ ‘Girly Basketball’ Playing Style

by Pablo MenaDecember 3, 2016, 3:16 pmNews >

Charles Barkley has long been vocal about his distaste for the Golden State Warriors’ style of play, and he criticized them again on Thursday before the Cleveland Cavaliers tipped off against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first half of a double-header on TNT.

Charles Barkley Slams Warriors’ ‘Girly Basketball’ Playing Style

“Maybe I’m old school, but I’m never going to like that little girly basketball where you have to outscore people,” Barkley said on the live broadcast. “I love [UConn women’s head coach] Geno Auriemma, one of my favorite people. I love women’s college basketball. But I don’t want it in the NBA.”

Clearly, the former NBA star didn’t mince words.This is hardly the first time Barkley slammed the Warriors for being a “jump-shooting team” that embraces a small-ball approach and that has had a long history of missing 3-pointers. Nevertheless, whatever Golden State has been doing seems to be working, despite the team’s unconventional playing style. The Warriors won the 2015 NBA Championship and has produced top, record-setting players like MVP point guard Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, and Steve Kerr was named the NBA Coach of the Year earlier this year.

The Warriors also set a league record as a team with an impressive 73 consecutive victories last season, thus surpassing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’s winning streak. Curry has set and broken several incredible individual records, among them the most 3-pointers in a game (13) earlier this month.

Nevertheless, the very-manly Barkley has still found something on which to harshly criticize the Warriors.

“The game’s going to come down to defense and rebounding,” he said in October, per For The Win’s Charles Curtis. “And easy baskets down low, that’s just my philosophy. If they win, maybe next time they can go get LeBron, then they can win that way, and y’all can still think that analytics [expletive] works.”

As the TNT crew began discussing who the best team in the Western Conference is, Barkley initially hesitated before finally settling on the San Antonio Spurs.

The Warriors (16-3), who are at the top of the Western Conference, will next host the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night. Golden State is coming off an overtime home loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

Caption:NEW YORK, NY – MAY 13: Charles Barkley (L) and Kenny Smith attend the Turner Upfront 2015 at Madison Square Garden on May 13, 2015 in New York City. 25201_002_DK_0321.JPG (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Turner)