Charles Barkley Is 'Concerned' With The State Of The NBA, Cites Load Management As A Big Reason Why

It’s not just fans who don’t like the current state of the NBA, Charles Barkley is also concerned about the league in which he came to fame.

"The Round Mound of Rebound" went on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" to discuss the NBA’s current product. Smith asked Barkley to compare it to the product of years past, and Barkley said he wasn’t impressed.

"You have to be concerned," Barkley said. "Everybody has to be concerned. Because the one thing you can’t do is alienate your fans. That’s the one thing you can’t do, because the fans make everything go. They buy our products. They watch our sport. And once you piss them off, there’s gonna be some repercussions." 

Charles Barkley On Load Management

Barkley then proceeded to rip players for their love affair with load management, saying this was one of the biggest reasons why fans care less about the NBA. 

"When you have guys making 75, 80, 90, God forbid $100 million a year to play basketball, and the guy says, ‘You know what, I’m gonna rest tonight.’ At some point the fans are gonna say, ‘I’ve had enough,’" Barkley said.

Sure, the NBA has implemented new rules to fix this problem. But it will be a while before it helps regain the trust of the NBA fan base.

Smith expounded on Charles Barkley's point, and stated that if players are really hurt and are going to sit out games, they shouldn’t dress up super fancy and show up to the court.

"It’s one thing to sit out, it's another thing to be at the game on the bench with fly street clothes, essentially flaunting it, while you’re not playing, but we know you're going to play tomorrow night or two nights later. But for some reason you can’t play tonight. I think that’s a slap in the face to fans," Smith said.

But immediately after saying that, Smith then tried to insert race in the conversation (surprise, surprise). He said that Black players sometimes use load management because they want to fully utilize the power they have, which Smith argues Black athletes didn't have in the past.

Charles Barkley correctly assessed the state of the NBA and is concerned with its product. (Photo by  Mike Kirschbaum/NBAE via Getty Images)

Surprisingly, Barkley didn’t play into this narrative and said that players should be looking to help others with the money they’ve earned, not spend time sticking their middle fingers up at those who run the league.

"Somebody did a lot of heavy lifting to put you in this situation," Barkley said. "Instead of making things better around them…You don’t ever snub your nose, you should say, ‘I’m a lucky dude. I'm going to take advantage of this situation.’ You should always give a certain amount of money to those who are less fortunate."

Barkley is more than just a funny personality for TNT. He’s got a solid grasp on an issue that is ruining the reputation of the NBA.