Charles Barkley believes Klay Thompson “overreacted” to the TNT panelist’s comments about the Warriors star’s game slipping last month.
Speaking to reporter Taylor Rooks, of Bleacher Report, Barkley defended his initial comments that Thompson was “not the same guy” after his injuries.
“Klay’s still a heck of a player, but he’s never gonna be that best two guard in the NBA that he was for a long time because of age, Achilles and ACL,” Barkley said. “I was disappointed that he overreacted because he 100 percent overreacted because I said, kid’s still a good player but his days of being the best two guard in the NBA (are over.)”
“He 100 percent overreacted.”
Chuck on Klay Thompson not being the same player pic.twitter.com/wvcfLQSOc7
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 29, 2022
Thompson had a slow start to the season playing under a minutes restriction for the first week. Shots weren’t falling for the 32-year-old who was starting an NBA season healthy for the first time in three years. Eventually, the outside noise was starting to fluster him.
Thompson reached a breaking point during a loss to the Suns in Phoenix during which he earned his first career ejection after getting into it with Devin Booker.
Two days after getting ejected, Thompson, unprompted, called out Barkley and said “it hurt my heart hearing” Barkley suggest he wasn’t the same.
“No duh, man,” Thompson said Oct. 28. “I tore my ACL and Achilles in consecutive years and still helped a team win a championship. It hurt hearing that because I put so much freakin’ effort getting back to this point. It’s hard to even put into words what I had to do to be the player I am today. Played 57 games in three years, give me some freakin’ time to get that back.”
Barkley said he understood what Thompson might’ve been going through at the time. He noted that Booker was outplaying a slumping Thompson during an Oct. 25 loss.
“When you get older and you’re like, ‘This guy is kicking my ass and there’s nothing I can do about it,’ because that was really hard for me when I got older,’ Barkley told Rooks. “That happens to every great player.”
Thompson has since found his way out of his shooting slump, though it took a heart-to-heart with Draymond Green Nov. 18 to help find his way back. Green told Thompson to be patient with himself rather than try to shoot his way out of the slump.
Green’s words of wisdom as well as a social-media hiatus helped re-center Thompson, who has had a remarkable turnaround since. Thompson is averaging 24 points over the last five games, shooting 53.8 percent overall and 56 percent from deep while attempting an average of 10 3s per game.
