NBA superstar Kevin Durant took off after basketball legend Charles Barkley after the “Inside the NBA” host called Durant a “bus rider” during his championship years with Golden State, and not the “bus driver.”
The obvious inference that Barkley made is that Durant was not the leader nor the driving force behind the back-to-back titles the Warriors won in 2017 and 2018. Instead, Barkley claims that KD joined a record-breaking squad who had just been to the NBA Finals the previous two years, winning one, behind the leadership of Steph Curry. Barkley has barked often that it was “weak” for Durant to join a squad with three Hall of Fame-caliber players and another All-Star reserve to get his two title trophies.
“He is [a great player] and let me tell you something, I don’t want to bad mouth [sic] the dude but you guys always talk about the championship stuff,” Barkley began. “Let me tell y’all, all these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about ‘you a champion.’ If you’re riding the bus, I don’t want to hear it. Come on Shaq, tell ’em. All these guys walk around with these championship rings. Hey, y’all bus riders. But let me tell you something. When you’re the bus driver and you got all that pressure when you have to play well or you going to get the blame? That’s a different animal.”
Charles Barkley goes off on Bus drivers and bus riders for championship teams and specifically talks about Kevin Durant https://t.co/DLBqD65kcj
— Alex 👋 (@Dubs408) April 24, 2022
When Durant learned of Barkley’s harsh appraisal of his tenure in Oakland, California, KD unloaded on Barkley with pictures instead of words.
Durant posted photos for his 13 million Instagram Story followers to show that Barkley also joined teams with legends to try to get a championship, including those in Philadelphia and then the Houston Rockets.
When fellow TNT host Kenny Smith tried to defend Durant, Barkley dismissed him and doubled down on his “bus rider” theory and said KD will never lead his team to another title.
What do you think about this?
