I'm not forgetting. I grew up on him and Bird I'm saying Barkley was better than mchale Let's make this clear
Also. Just to be clear. Charles Barkley is my hero. At age 23 he told the world "I'm not a role model, parents, teachers And firemen are" At age 23. He said that. The guy is the most awesome athlete I've ever experienced in my life And he was better than Karl Malone every time they faced off You can't beat Charles Barkley. Anyone in this thread who says otherwise will never sit next to me at an NBA game
HAHA My man..... I also think highly of Barkley the player not Barkley the commentator or entertainer though
You have to remember the era Barkley played in was TOUGH. Big strong front lines that battled it out without the whistle being blown all the time. Barkley was smaller than all of the forwards of the era and yet still beat up pretty much every forward he played against. Most of the time he did that while being the undisputed leader of the team he was on. Throw an in his prime Barkley into today's NBA and it wouldn't even be fair. Where he ranks all time is hard to say because he probably isn't in say the top five all time.....but he is in a group of a lot of players that were behind them that were all outstanding players.
Ratings like this are subjective and anyone can make a decent argument Barkley belongs in the top 20 but there is one area where he is #1.
LOL. heypartner going off. I wasn't talking about you. Nobody had mentioned about McHale when they brought up the all time great PF. That's a big omission. I think McHale is a top 5 PF, although I hated McHale and his Celtics, almost as much as I hated the Lakers and the Jazz.
Not in any order Michael Jordan Magic Johnson Larry Bird Lebron James Hakeem Olajuwon Moses Malone David Robinson Kareem Abdul Jabbar Wilt Chamberlain Shaquille O'Neal Kobe Bryant Karl Malone Oscar Robertson Elgin Baylor Jerry West Julius Erving Bill Russell Pete Maravich Isaiah Thomas Scottie Pippen So no.....
He played in an era where there were real 7 foot centers and very large/tall power forwards. Like: Karl Malone Shawn Kemp Dennis Rodman Derrick Coleman Chris Webber Horace Grant Vin Baker Juwan Howard Kevin Willis I would argue that PF's today are leaner and shorter on average. EDIT: and regarding the rules change impact on his game, that would have only impacted the last few years of his career (on the Rox). He didn't used to play the back in ISO ball when he was young/in his prime
Duncan, Garnett, Malone, Barkely, Dirk. I really don't think McHale has an argument to be above any of them. If you want to talk about a PF who's never talked about, how about Bob Pettit? 2 time MVP, actually managed to defeat Russell's Celtics, was a 10 time All-NBA 1st team while McHale only accomplished that once.
the funny thing about the people who 'hate' barkley the commentator on tnt, is that they watch his him like white on rice or water in the ocean and know exactly what he says every night. barkley was an immovable object like shaq in the paint. he knew how to play the post properly without having a height advantage.
In my opinion the top 16 spots are a lock: [in some order](Jordan, Chamberlain, Kareem, Russell, Magic, Bird, West, Oscar, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan, Lebron, Kobe, Baylor, Moses, Dr. J) That leaves the following fighting for the last 4 spots: Havlicek, Malone, Barkley, Pettit, KG, Cousy, Pippen, Isiah, Stockton, Robinson, Dirk I think Barkley's right on the bubble. On my personal list he might actually land RIGHT at #21. I also think arbitrary cutoffs like 20 are meaningless, so it really doesn't matter if he's 19 or 21.
All I know is that you can take any list of top PFs and none of the other ones could do what Barkley could do on a court. Watch from 1:40-4:00. There are several plays in there that none of those other guys could even think about. <object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/E4YNvuemDiM?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/E4YNvuemDiM?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
