What’s beef? Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep.
At least, that’s how the late, great Notorious B.I.G. described it on “Life After Death”. In the NBA, it’s a lot less stressful and non-violent than the rappers description, but it exists. The Los Angeles Clippers, if any team in the NBA, would know.
Blue Man Hoop
Led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clippers have been the object of several beefs and rivalries throughout the NBA. Team-wise? The Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies come to mind. Player-wise? DeMarcus Cousins, Andrew Bogut, Kent Bazemore, etc. You name them, they’ve possibly had an encounter with a Clippers player mid-game before.
But Griffin’s latest “beef” isn’t with his peers. Instead it’s with former NBA great Charles Barkley.
As an analyst on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” pre- and post-game show, Barkley isn’t known for with withholding his comments. And those comments? Blake Griffin has been subject of many. And Griffin has taken notice, revealing in an interview with GQ Magazine that he assumed he and Chuck were cool and that he’s no longer a fan of Chuck
"Charles Barkley seems to have an issue with you.Yeah. I mean, I thought we were cool, and then all of a sudden… I think the whole former-player thing, where they come and they’re now analysts, it’s hard, because they don’t want to give it up to anybody. Unless they really, really have to. Or you have a relationship with them. And I never really had a relationship with him. To this day, I don’t think I’ve even met him."
Charles’ comments pertaining to Blake Griffin have touched several bases over the years.
In an interview on the Dan Patrick show from June of 2013, Barkley had this to say about Griffin:
"Dan Patrick: Is Blake Griffin a good player?Charles Barkley: Not even close. He’s not even close Dan.Patrick: What does he do well besides dunk?Barkley: Nothing. Just commercials."
Like majority world, Barkley’s thought pattern pertaining to Griffin — and his ability on the floor — fell deeply into the notion that Griffin was only good at dunking, ignoring his handle — the best of any ‘true’ power forward in the NBA and his elite passing, amongst the best for a big man in the league and possibly in league interest.
The comments didn’t stop there.
Hoops Habit
In May of 2012, Barkley called Griffin out for his flopping, an issue from Griffin and the Clippers that has drawn commentary from anyone who’s someone:
"(Griffin) made me so mad last night. I called him Vince Carter last night. Because Vince Carter was a great player — we used to joke he got shot like three times a game. I called him that on the show last night, I said ‘Blake Griffin has turned into a new Vince Carter.’ … He gets shot three or four times a game and just goes down. He better stop that flopping. He gotta stop that, because you can tell all these players are taking cheap shots because he’s getting to be annoying with all the flopping.”"
After the incident from last season in which Matt Barnes took to Twitter to express his disdain for constantly having to stand up for his teammates following an altercation with Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Barkley stated Griffin needs to stand up for himself and starting ‘hitting back’ his opponents.
"“Blake Griffin, I like you and you seem like a nice kid. I’ve never met you. You are a very good player, but people are starting to talk — and you know the people. Other guys are starting to knock the hell out of you … all the time … you ain’t got to hurt anybody — people who fight all the time, they’re punks — but the toughest guy on your team can’t be 5’3. I’m talking about Chris Paul.”"
As an analyst it’s Barkley’s job to critique, criticize, and analyze all basketball happenings whether Blake Griffin is the source of commentary or any other player in the association, but it’s widely known that Barkley’s commentary is a bit dated and off base.
Every power forward doesn’t need to come equipped with an elite back-to-the-basket game — the same applies to centers (see Chuck vs. Dwight Howard). Every offense doesn’t have to rely on post game to excel a la offenses based in the 1990s. You can go on and on about where Barkley’s commentary comes up short as an analyst – it’s painfully obvious.
Regardless of what Barkley has to say about Griffin, it won’t affect the power forward going forward. Blake is coming off a career-best season, the Clippers built momentum coming off a franchise-best season, and now they’re in the position to compete for a NBA championship for the first time in franchise history.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Barkley responds to Griffin’s comments — because you know he’s going to respond.