Draymond Green Says Charles Barkley ‘Can’t Talk Basketball With Me’ Because He’s ‘Not Smart Enough’

Prior to Steph Curry’s return from a broken hand on Thursday night, Draymond Green was the last man standing in the Golden State Warriors’ much-revered collection of talent that brought the to the NBA Finals in each of the last five seasons. Curry and Klay Thompson were both hurt, while Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala left the franchise in the offseason. As such, losing all that talent has led to a brutal year for the Dubs, with Green struggling to put up the kind of numbers that he did on such a loaded squad.

This has also led to Green being the butt of some jokes, including this swipe last week from Charles Barkley of TNT. Green was ejected from a game against the Los Angeles Lakers after less than 10 minutes of action, which led to Barkley dishing out a joke at his expense.

While saying someone got “his normal triple-single” is objectively very funny, he then went onto say that Green “talks all that stuff when he’s got them other boys with him. Now that he’s got out there and fight for himself, he just don’t want to play, give me a break. Y’all better quit telling me who can play and who can’t play, I know who can play and who can’t play.”

Green, unsurprisingly, wasn’t all that happy about what Barkley had to say. He was asked about chatter from Barkley at shootaround on Friday and went after the Hall of Fame inductee, saying that Barkley should “stop before I take his job.”

“Barkley should stop before I go take his job, because I can do that well, too,” Green said. “He already didn’t make enough money playing so he needs that job, he should stop talking to me. I have a tendency to end people, so he should stop before I take his job.”

Green said that if Barkley keeps talking about him, he’ll take his job “sooner than he thinks.” Then, Green kept digging, this time with jabs at Barkley’s intelligence and the fact that he never won a championship.

“He also can’t talk basketball with me, either,” Green said. “Not smart enough, not qualified, no rings, can’t sit at this table.”

Barkley and Green are two guys who are never shy about some verbal sparring, and whenever Chuck pops up next — whether it be on TNT’s weekly NBA coverage next Thursday or sometime before that — we think it’s safe to assume he’ll have something to say about all of this. As for what would happen after that, well, we’ll have to wait to find out.