'We're Paying Bums Today' - Charles Barkley Went Off About Salaries And Load Management Killing The NBA

There a bunch of moving parts here. First, Charles Barkley saying he doesn't want to offend anyone while comparing players to janitors is fucking hilarious. I mean no disrespect! But they are bums! Not even worth stepping on the court. Second, this is a classic 'my era is better' that somehow is worse than ever. This isn't even just an NBA thing. This an everything thing. You always think the era you were a part of is the best. It's more talked about when it comes to the NBA because of how the game has changed. 

Second, at least Barkley clarifies himself and says how he understands it's all part of the time. Because that's exactly what it is! There's more money than ever in sports. Of course players are going to get more money now when it's available. That's not even a debate or a topic of discussion. That's how you see guys get ridiculous deals. Remember free agency in 2016 when Mozgov set the market at a dumb $64 million deal? That was all based on new money coming in. Dumb, but still how it came about. 

Now where I think he's wrong is talking about money with load management like this: 

Don't get me wrong. The NBA has a massive load management problem. Too many guys are sitting out too many games. But it's because of the money. Owners want these guys to hit their value - that's the playoffs. They don't care about sitting out the regular season games because that $30 million gets justified in the playoffs. But there's gotta be a fix. 

I still think the league needs a shorter season. At the minimum you need to put in a clause or rule that you have to play a certain amount of games - 80% or something - to be eligible for awards (and more money). It's not even a disrespectful to fans type thing. It just cheapens the product. Why does anyone give a shit about a Tuesday night NBA game when there's the top 4 players in the game sitting out? You shouldn't. That's a league problem more than a disrespect problem.