Wednesday night on “Inside the NBA” was less of a pregame show and more of a roast session as Draymond Green joined the desk.
The Golden State forward started going at it with Charles Barkley as the Mound Round of Rebound poked fun at the sinking ship that is the Warriors dynasty.
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The tension started when Sir Charles decided to eulogize the Dubs while looking Green dead in the eye.
“It’s over for the Warriors. No disrespect. It ends for every old team,” Barkley said.
“You had your run; you get old; you let Klay go. You and Steph are on the backside of your careers; it just passed you by.”
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Barkley kept his foot on the gas.
While he gave the Warriors credit for “one of the greatest runs ever,” he made it clear that Father Time remains undefeated in the paint.
“Sports … listen, sports are for young people,” Barkley added. “You hope to have a great long career, but sports … nobody wins when they’re 37, 38.”
In predictable fashion, Draymond was unable to stomach the banter.
He waited for the opening and went for the jugular, referencing Barkley’s infamous sunset years in Texas.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the goal is just to not look like you in the Houston Rockets uniform,” Green fired back.
The jab was a direct hit on Barkley’s ring-chasing era in Houston, where the Hall of Famer was famously a shell of his MVP self.
Green then shifted into a rare moment of veteran self-awareness and admitted the Warriors are in a transitional phase, but insisted the pedigree matters more than the box score.
“I think understanding what is success at this point is key for us,” Green explained. “Knowing and understanding that it may not be realistic to win a championship, but can we continue to build to that so that once we leave this organization, it’s still in a great space?”
Despite Draymond’s talk about maintaining a winning pedigree, this year was a harsh wake-up call for the Golden State faithful.
The Warriors’ season went out with a whimper as they finished 10th in the West and were bounced immediately in the play-in tournament.
Barkley might think the light is fading, but Draymond is clearly going to keep swinging on his way out.
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