Charles Barkley Says Kobe Bryant Is Sixth Best Player Of All-Time, LeBron James Is Seventh
Charles Barkley ranked his top NBA players of all-time in a recent interview with University of Kentucky men's basketball coach John Calipari.
Barkley listed Michael Jordan as No. 1. Then, in no particular order, he named Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
He added that Kobe Bryant was No. 6 and LeBron James was No. 7.
Barkley said that he didn't think that James would've matched up well against the "Bad Boys" Detroit Pistons teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“I do think the way they play the game today, [James] didn’t want any part of those 'Bad Boy' Pistons,” Barkley said on Calipari's Facebook show "Coffee with Cal.'" “Those guys were out there trying to hurt people. I used to always tell people that when you play the Pistons, you gotta call your family and tell them you love them just in case you never saw them again.”
The "Bad Boys" were featured on a recent episode of "The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
After losing to the Pistons in three-straight playoff series, Jordan decided to gain 15 pounds of muscle over the summer of 1990 so he could better hold his ground against their bruising, physical style of play.
Jordan had previously avoided lifting weights because he feared that would alter his jump shot. But he realized that he needed to bulk up a bit to win.
"I was getting brutally beaten up," Jordan said in episode four of the documentary series. "And I wanted to administer pain. I wanted to start fighting back."
Jordan went on to win his first NBA championship in 1991, beating the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Lakers in The Finals.
He then won a stunning six NBA championships in eight seasons.
