Is an NBA coach coaching his best player hard fair? Charles Barkley is bothered that it’s even a question.
Before Game 2 of the playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves, the Inside the NBA Crew of Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith discussed comments made by Minnesota coach Chris Finch after Game 1. Finch said that the Timberwolves were “lucky” that their best players, like Anthony Edwards, are willing to be called out when going over film — something Barkley feels is too rare in today’s NBA.
“Ernie, this man is coaching his team,” Barkley said. “The notion that today’s players are such wussies that they can’t get criticized is so crazy to me. Every bad player and every great player should want to get coached. It’s not criticism. It’s coaching. And it’s so frustrating when people are like, ‘Man, I can’t believe he called out this guy.’ I’m like, ‘That’s his job.’”
Charles Barkley: “The notion that today’s players are such wussies that they can’t get criticized is so crazy to me. Every bad player & every great player should want to get coached. It’s not criticism. It’s coaching… Coach your team. Get on everybody’s ass…” #NBA pic.twitter.com/bRM72tHRAO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 9, 2025
Barkley continued, adding that Edwards’ previous comments made him particularly fair game for criticism.
“First of all, he invited the smoke — ‘We want the Warriors,’” Barkley said. “He is one of the best players in the league. He can’t score one point in a home opener of a series, without Steph Curry. He said, he’s the leader. People are gonna follow him. That’s the bad thing about being the man. They’re gonna follow you good or bad. And what he was trying to say was, when Anthony was struggling, his energy was down and the rest of the team followed. They were down 10 before Steph got hurt.”
Game 1 of the series was a struggle for Edwards. While he finished with a respectable 23 points, most of that came late, when the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt. Edwards scored only one point in the first half, which Golden State largely dominated en route to a 44-31 halftime lead. This was despite playing a large portion of the half with their star, Steph Curry.
Barkley finished his thought by praising the recently retired coach, Gregg Popovich. Barkley noted that Popovich, who led the Spurs to five NBA championships, was never afraid to call out his best players when it was warranted, specifically naming Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginóbili, Tony Parker and David Robinson.
“Coach your team. Get on everybody’s ass,” he said. “That’s the thing I love about Gregg Popovich. Tim Duncan, Ginóbili and Parker — and David Robinson — said, ‘He yelled at all of us.’ Because what that does is, as a coach, it keeps your credibility. ‘Cause, if you ain’t gonna yell at me and Shaq, you can’t yell at Kenny. You can’t do that. You ain’t gonna never win like that if you let your best player get away with stuff.”
