The last time we shared a Charles Barkley clip on the site, he was ripping people for building their entire day around the solar eclipse. Here he is now criticizing broadcast media for being cowards:

“Part of our job, we watch all the games and we watch all the talk shows. A lot of these people on television, they’re cowards because they want the players to like them. They don’t want to do their job, which is to tell the truth. And I just want to say this about coaching – anybody who thinks the reason the Lakers suck is because of Darvin Ham or the reason the Suns suck is because of Frank Vogel – you don’t know what you’re talking about. Frank Vogel is a hell of a coach. Darvin Ham is a hell of a coach trying to get his career started. But for all of you punks, idiots, and jackasses on other networks, who wanna be media and want the players to like y’all, do your damn job. The Lakers suck and the Suns suck because of the players. It has nothing to do with the coaches.” 

Naturally, the first person to get blamed for failure is the head coach. The classic Philadelphia exercise is that the players get the credit when the team wins and the coach gets the blame when the team loses. That’s true across all sport, from here to the KHL. No doubt that when Kunlun Red Star has a shitty season, they’re calling for Sergei Sergovich’s head.

The general thought of media dickriding players isn’t specific to TV. The modern media scene is much more player friendly, so you see that bleed through on various platforms, be it writers, bloggers, podcasters, streamers. It’s one of the more fascinating things, and kind of runs along generational lines. Your uncles were more likely to kill Donovan McNabb than show him support. For a good, recent example, see Turner, Trea. Would a standing ovation have taken place in 1993 for a struggling Mickey Morandini? Fans and media are both different in 2024.