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Last week, Charles Barkley appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast and during his interview the subject of the NBA’s “second apron” was brought up. The second apron is an additional layer of penalties NBA teams have to pay when they exceed certain spending limits. Barkley strongly blames players like LeBron James for the rule because he says it was implemented due to all of the “superteams” he helped create over the years. Richard Jefferson, a former NBA player himself, found Barkley’s take to be rather hypocritical and let him know exactly that during his Road Trippin’ podcast.
“Why did they have to come up with b——- rules, Bill?” Barkley told Simmons. “Because all these guys want to play together and not compete. How many great players do you need on one team? See, this is what bothers me, my generation. They made up these rules, like, these young people. Well, if I had a dollar for every time I heard the second apron, why did Adam Silver had to put the se second apron in? Because LeBron got all his guys together. KD want to go play with the Warriors. Wait, y’all don’t want to win the championship and just compete against each other?
“Don’t get mad at Adam Silver because y’all want to play together and dominate the league cuz y’all don’t want to compete,” he continued. “I hate when I hear, ‘man, the second apron’s not fair.’ What do you mean it’s not fair? If y’all stop all wanting to play together, we wouldn’t have to make up bogus a– rules to stop y’all from playing together.”
Richard Jefferson was having none of that
“When we look at teaming up, he did it!” Jefferson said in response to Charles Barkley’s rant. “He joined Olajuwon. And then Scottie Pippen came in. And now we’re talking about ‘the second apron exists!’ Did we forget our history? His own history! And I love Charles! Charles is my icon, my idol, my big bro. There’s not a person in this industry that I f—— love more… But Charles, let’s be honest, you literally joined a team with Hakeem Olajuwon because he had won two championships. Wow, that sounds like maybe LeBron going an joining D-Wade. And then you brought in Scottie Pippen! Man, that sounds like Chris Bosh joining…
“And then you got Shaq and Kobe who also went called, and then they lost in the championship because of an injury to Karl Malone, some B.S., but they still made it to the Finals. So Karl Malone joined with Shaq and Kobe and got Gary Payton. So these two guys joined up. Why do we always make it seem like LeBron is the first person to join up in NBA history?
“And so it’s like when you look at this over history, it’s like c’mon, the second apron doesn’t… we’re blaming everything on LeBron right, wrong, ugly, that’s fine, we’re cool, that’s a different story,” he continued. “But Charles joined the Houston Rockets with Hakeem Olajuwon and then they went and recruited Scottie Pippen.
“The Lakers with Shaq and Kobe went and recruited one of the best power forwards of all time to play next to Shaq and next to Kobe. And then they went and got another all-defensive historic guard in Gary Payton. That defense with Gary Payton and Kobe Bryant at the front line. Are are you kidding me? They were trying to make it unfair. So how are we gonna just now all of a sudden forget all of our NBA history? And that’s just going back a few years. Come on.
“So, no, the second apron doesn’t exist because LeBron and guys wanted to stop competing. Why did Charles go to Houston? Or maybe he’s telling us he didn’t want to compete. Come on, Charles.”