While I am a huge fan of Barkley’s, his continued jabs at the Knicks have to stop. He’s just making himself sound foolish and losing credibility by the day.

Dec. 13, 2012; New York, NY, USA; NBA former player Charles Barkley attends the game between the New York Knicks adn teh Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 116-107. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

It began in training camp when Barkley insisted that the Brooklyn Nets were the best team in New York, which was fair to say and still could be true at the end of the season.

Barkley has admitted to only watching the Knicks play one time at Madison Square Garden since retiring as a player in 2000.

“Cause y’all’s team stunk,” he said. “Why would I go see y’all play? One thing about me is I’m not going to watch the bad teams play.

Fair enough.

But then he went on to call the Knicks ‘Playboy Bunnies’.

“Everybody in New York thinks the Knicks are Playboy bunnies, and I have been telling them for years the Knicks are a rabbit,” he said. “They’re closer to a Playboy bunny this year but for the last few years these guys are like, ‘We have a really good team!’ And I say, ‘You really think that?’ And I say, ‘No, they don’t.’ But this is the best team they’ve had in a while.”

Barkley must realize that whether he has any beef (none that I am aware of) with the Knicks organization, this is a good team. One of the better ones in the NBA in fact. It’s a quarter of the way through the season. It is a large enough sample size to judge.

Finally Barkley suggested that the Knicks haven’t beaten anyone all season, which just makes him sound foolish. His statement was that the Knicks don’t have any good wins.

Really?

I agree.

Taking apart the Heat twice by 20 aren’t good wins, they are great ones. So is winning in San Antonio. As a matter of fact, eight of the Knicks 17 wins are against teams that would currently be in the playoffs and there are also victories against teams that will be in the playoff mix at the end of the season such as the Lakers, Nuggets and Pacers.

It’s sad to say, but Barkley just has a personal vendetta against the Knicks’ organization.

Many of the statements he has made recently are just way off the wall.

I respect Barkley a ton, but what he needs to do is swallow his pride a little bit and shut up.

Target another team where your comments will have a little more validity.

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Barkley didn’t have kind things to say about the New York Knicks as he doesn’t see the Carmelo Anthony-Amar’e Stoudemire duo having much success and he sees the Brooklyn Nets being a much better team than the Knicks in 2013.

It’s hard to argue with Barkley, considering the Knicks are 30-33 in the regular season when Stoudemire and Anthony are healthy and on the floor together and only 1-7 when they’re together in the postseason.

“It’s not going to work, and it’s not going to click,” Barkley said of the Knicks’ superstar duo. “I’m not a believer that a leopard can change its spots. They’re both very good offensive players — Carmelo is a great offensive player, Amar’e is a very good offensive player. But I don’t think all of a sudden they’re going to become great rebounders and great defenders.”

Barkley also added that because of the shortcomings of Anthony and Stoudemire at the defensive end of the floor, it puts way too much pressure on Tyson Chandler, who was often in foul trouble last season.

“They don’t rebound the ball well and they’re not a good defensive team,” Barkley said. “I really think that’s going to be their downfall. I don’t foresee them getting better, to be honest with you.”

Barkley went on to criticize the Knicks for allowing Jeremy Lin to leave as a free agent and criticized the signings of Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby, saying ‘I love that (move) … if it was 2000.  I’m not so sure that I like it in 2012.”

As for the Nets, Barkley called them the best team in New York based on that he felt their offseason acquisitions were far better than those of the Knicks. Barkley especially raved about the trade to bring in Joe Johnson.

“I think Joe Johnson is going to be huge in Brooklyn, because he’s more of a role player,” Barkley said. “The problem he had in Atlanta was they expected him to be the best player. The best player (in Brooklyn) is Deron Williams. So I really think that they’re the best team in New York.”

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For a special Thanksgiving addition of Lockout Videos let’s revisit Thanksgiving from a few years back with our friends Kenny, Charles and Ernie of Inside the NBA.

Man, i miss those guys. Hopefully by the time the day is over we can all be thankful that the league and the players have come to their senses and ended the Lockout.

Before Game 2′s telecast on TNT, Charles Barkley made a few strange comments towards Mike D’Antoni. As far as we know, the statements were unprovoked. D’Antoni responded earlier today in an article by Newsday’s Alan Hahn:

Mike D’Antoni brushed off questions about Charles Barkley’s recent comments — and subsequent apology — on TNT this week. Barkley before Tuesday’s Game 2 criticized D’Antoni and suggested the Knicks “are going to have a new coach next year” and then on Thursday said he was wrong to say that.

“It’s fine,” D’Antoni said. “It’s a distraction in a sense that I’ve got so many things on my plate right now, trying to get us right, but I haven’t really thought about it that much.”

When asked a follow-up question, D’Antoni quickly replied, ”This is probably not the place to go into it.”

Weird. Unless Stephon Marbury is Barkley’s godson, I can’t figure out/wait to hear what the deal is.

Orlando's Matt Barnes gets a good sniff of Joe Johnson in their series: yeah, JJ stunk (source: Yardbarker.com)

I really love Manu Ginobili, and I would’ve loved to see what he could do as a Knick, but I gotta say I was kinda glad when he recently signed a 3-year deal to stay with the Spurs.  That meant he wouldn’t be available as a huge risk out there tempting the Knicks.  If you look at the players with the 30 Biggest Salaries from this past season, you can pretty much lump ‘em into two categories: the best of the best and the obscenely overpaid injured types.  There’s a serious danger that Manu will fall into Group B.   As exciting as it’d be to see how good he could be as a team’s focal point (rather than Tim Duncan and Tony Parker being the first two options), it’s a bad bet.

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