The current Team USA has one of the best rosters ever seen in USA basketball history. It has a combination of young NBA stars and veterans. Stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant lead the current roster. Even with such star power, Team USA has not blown teams away like they should. The semi-final matchup against Serbia remains the best example.
Recently, Charles Barkley and his comments about Team USA went viral. Barkley, in the clip, talked about how Serbia almost won the game against the USA and had shattered all the expectations that the USA carried. He felt that, with such a strong roster like that of Team USA, they have to win games easily and not with a close margin.
They haven’t used their depth the right way because one advantage we had in 1992, and they still have today when they go to their bench, they’re brining in better player. [Kerr] has not used his team properly. If you’re gonna go to the Olympics, everybody deserves to play…
Charles Barkley via ESPN Radio Amber & Ian Radio
Barkley even talked about Jayson Tatum getting benched for the whole game. He considered Jayson Tatum to be a better choice than LeBron James and Kevin Durant at this point. Still, Tatum was benched by Steve Kerr for the whole game. Tatum is certainly coming off the most successful season of his career, as he won the championship with the Celtics.
Barkley cleared the air that he meant no disrespect about the other stars. Team USA managed to defeat Serbia in a close game, with the final score being 95-91. Team USA will be heading to the finals for the fifth consecutive time and facing France. Nevertheless, Barkley felt the game needed a more dominant outcome rather than a close one.
Charles Barkley will be staying with TNT and will not be retiring
TNT recently failed to retain the NBA’s broadcasting rights. This event marked the end of the Emmy award-winning show Inside the NBA. Charles Barkley was one of the main stars of the show and was upset about the showing ending soon. He even announced his retirement with respect to the show and his other co-stars on the show.
Recently, on the Dan Patrick Show, Barkley revealed that he will stay on TV and not retire. He even stated that TNT is still finding a way to keep the Inside the NBA team alive. Barkley even stated that the TNT executives have decided to retain him and all the other crew of the show for future endeavors.
As such, the group of Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith could continue to work together. Instead of just focusing on the NBA, the panel will now focus on all the sports that TNT has secured the rights to.
