He can't believe it? Everyone knew going that the lockout and schedule would have this effect.

/in before turrible

And yet the league will make oodles of cash this year. It's not about quality of product. It's about a lack of competition against the product.

Bring EPL soccer to broadcast TV and watch tens of viewers abandon NBA basketball floppers for EPL soccer floppers.

Cndn Bacon: That's a turrible excuse:

FTFA: "They have all these built in excuses about it's the lockout. Let me tell you something: If these teams played once a week, they would still suck. You watch one of these teams, and if they rested for a week they would still suck."

No, it's a good excuse. Charles may be a lot of things, but a good basketball analyst isn't one of them.

Barkley also blasted ESPN's Skip Bayless for criticizing Rose after he missed a couple of fourth-quarter free throws in Sunday's 97-93 loss to the Heat.

"Anybody who goes after Derrick Rose is just an idiot," Barkley said. "First of all, I think Skip Bayless is the biggest punk in the world. How can you go after Derrick Rose?

Charles and I finally agree on something.

mainstreet62: How can you go after Derrick Rose?

Because his shot selection is ridiculous? The guy chucks up 5 threes a game at under 30%, which is even more atrocious considering that Rose can get to the hoop whenever he wants.

I think basketball has been great this year. Mainly watching the Hawks, Heat, Thunder, Nuggets, Wolves, and Clips. All are extremely fun teams to watch.

Charles Barkley played for Phoenix. He should know about several teams in the NBA that go out and hire the same point guard for 20 years and swear each year is THE year they win the playoffs without any big defenders, no second squad and one aging veteran point guard (Kevin Johnson at the time Charles Barkley played for the Suns.)

Yeah...

And the Suns have the audacity to force people to pay for cable to watch their one good player age gracefully while he watches cheap players come and go for years. Steve Nash can be a joy to watch but its no fun getting stroked each year by the Suns and local media how good the Suns are this year, year in and year out.

tonecluster: Superstar calls have gotten out of hand.

Do you have any evidence to support this? Because by looking at the stats, I don't see any superstar getting any more FTAs than usual, and I haven't really seen many egregious call when I've been watching.

tonecluster: Basically, I see the calls he didn't get last year, when he was coming up. And now, I see the calls he gets.

Fun fact: Kevin Love is taking more FTAs this year than last year. Also a fun fact: he is attempting more shots this year, including more around the basket... No way the two are related.

People are just acting ridiculous when they say that superstars get all the calls. I believe LeBron was called for traveling 3 times last night? But no one will mention in, because he might have gotten away with it once. I remember Zaza Pachulia practically walking in from the three point line once this year for a dunk and a travel wasn't called... must be because he is a superstar!

gtfan92: People are just acting ridiculous when they say that superstars get all the calls. I believe LeBron was called for traveling 3 times last night? But no one will mention in, because he might have gotten away with it once. I remember Zaza Pachulia practically walking in from the three point line once this year for a dunk and a travel wasn't called... must be because he is a superstar!

Isn't it amusing how a country that is completely enamored with professional football comes to the conclusion they don't like basketball because of the constant interruptions (See: Coach's Challenges, commercials after every possession, timeouts at the end of the game to ice kickers), preferential star treatment (See: The bastardization of the NFL rule set as a means of extending the shelf life and effectiveness of the pocket-passing quarterback, the most marketable skill set in the league), and can't relate with the athletes because of their height (as though a league where the average player is 6'6 and 220 is worse than a league where the average player is 6'2 and 260)? I think it's more likely that people don't like what they suck at, and with most people in the country being white, there you go.

The NBA would be tons better if they contracted several non-competitive (and frankly, never-will-be-competitive) teams.

/don't get me started on the black hole of money that is the WNBA

MugzyBrown: People are just acting ridiculous when they say that superstars get all the calls. I believe LeBron was called for traveling 3 times last night? But no one will mention in, because he might have gotten away with it once. I remember Zaza Pachulia practically walking in from the three point line once this year for a dunk and a travel wasn't called... must be because he is a superstar!

Stars are more likely to get bailed out on drives to the lane than non-stars

Most stars in the NBA today are stars because of their ability to get past their defender by utilizing a great first step, and driving into the lane where another defender will likely have to help and foul to stop them, or the original defender will have to foul. The fact that they get "bailed-out" more probably has something to do with the fact that they are going to be effectively driving into traffic more.