Charles Barkley had a lot to say about Anthony Davis and the Lakers during a segment of Inside the NBA. Chuck didn’t hold back and personally called out Davis for his poor play and said the team needs to stop blaming Russell Westbrook and Frank Vogal for the teams’ issues.
Here’s a full transcript of Chucks comments:
“For the first month of the season, y’all blamed everything on Russell Westbrook, for the Lakers putting all those old-ass geezers together, Now I hear y’all going to fire Frank Vogel. Listen, Russ is learning, Frank Vogel is a terrific coach. Put all them old-ass geezers together and just trying to blame other people, it ain’t right and it ain’t cool.
“Listen, Anthony Davis, you’ve got to play better. I said on this first night, if the Lakers were going to be any good, it was all going to be on you. Has nothing to do with Russell, had nothing to do with LeBron and the rest of them old-ass geezers out there. But now y’all done cross the line because I really like Frank Vogel. And listen, it ain’t his fault. In my opinion, I blame Anthony Davis.
“Anthony Davis, you know I like you as a person, but you ain’t doing what you’re supposed to. You’re 27 years old. You’re supposed to be in your prime. You’re supposed to be one of the five best players in the world, up there in Giannis, Kevin Durant, all those guys and you ain’t holding up your end of the bargain. So now I hear you’re going to fire the coach? That’s total BS man.”
Barkley has a point. Now that we can all agree, LeBron James is reaching that point in his career where he can’t carry a team like he usually would, a lot of the load will be placed on AD’s back, and he hasn’t lived up to it yet. During a stretch of games without James, the Lakers went 5-7.
AD has been abysmal from 3-point range, shooting 18%. The whole team has been bad from beyond the arc, especially Westbrook, who has been getting a bulk of the minutes and whose shooting woes are well documented. Because of this, and many other reasons, Chuck thinks the Lakers will face another trip to the play in a tournament.
The Lakers did beat the Celtics this evening.
Flip the page to view Chuck’s reactions towards AD and the Lakers and where they will see themselves in the future come playoff time.
