Charles Barkley Claims It’s “Ridiculous” to Pay Players $500K to Compete in NBA Cup

Charles Barkley and other 'old heads' have constantly criticized current NBA players and teams for load managing during the season.

Charles Barkley Claims It’s “Ridiculous” to Pay Players $500K to Compete in NBA Cup

Charles Barkley does not like the premise of the NBA Cup (Image via FirstSportz)

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As the NBA Cup Finals play out, Charles Barkley will not be continuing his coverage along with the Inside the NBA crew, as they are not part of the team assigned for this edition.

In the first edition, he was excited to see what the in-season tournament would bring and enjoyed his time bantering with the likes of Stephen A. Smith and the rest of ESPN’s NBA Countdown cast. The following season, as part of TNT’s coverage, Charles Barkley and his crew were back in Las Vegas. This time, they watched the Milwaukee Bucks win the $500K prize money.

In the third edition, the Hall of Famer was instead speaking with Tom Tolbert on his namesake show, and they got around to talking about the elimination pattern of the NBA Cup that seems to excite fans.

I think the cup thing is somewhat embarrassing. I’m disappointed that we have to make an in-season tournament to make these guys more money so they won’t do load management. But to have to pay these guys extra money to make them play other games – they should play basketball because they’re well-compensated to play basketball.

Charles Barkley said

The Round Mound of Rebound said this as Tolbert talked about how he does not like the NBA Cup being bang in the middle of the regular season.

Charles Barkley believes that it was embarrassing that the league had to create an excuse for players to show some commitment to play competitive basketball. As load management continues to become an issue, he prefers that players, who earn millions of dollars a year, go to work every day instead of needing a monetary excuse to motivate them.

Charles Barkley and ‘old heads’ have been critical of load management

Load management has become quite a problem for the NBA. Not only are star athletes regularly resorting to it in an effort to stay fresh before the postseason, but teams are also getting into the act. They are intentionally not fielding their best players whenever a close back-to-back is on the schedule, or when they have a bunch of games that could tire the team.

Joel Embiid has made it a habit of load managing
Joel Embiid has made it a habit of load managing (Image via Hoop X/X)

The NBA has tried to mitigate the concern by slapping fines on teams. But the actions of some franchises this season have proved that the owners, worth billions, and earning millions every week, do not care about those six-figure fines.

Charles Barkley and fellow old heads, be it former players or analysts who have covered and watched the league in the 80s and 90s, have been vocal about the lack of commitment from current generation players.

They believe that after earning generational wealth, it is shameful that athletes cannot fulfill their basic work obligations, and instead are trying to take advantage of the loopholes in the rules.

Cavaliers latest team to get fined for not fielding players

As per the current CBA, players are trending towards earning $100 million in the near future. Despite that, either they or their teams have been reluctant to field them in every game.

Most recently, the NBA fined the Cleveland Cavaliers $250,000 for violating the player participation policy. They did not make guard Darius Garland available for a nationally televised game.

However, it is unlikely to matter to a franchise that is close to a $5 billion valuation. This is bound to frustrate the likes of Charles Barkley and other old heads more than ever.

After all, during their heyday, playing every game was a matter of pride. Now, that has gone out of the window, as players look to maximize and exploit in-season rest.

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