The Los Angeles Lakers had lofty expectations after landing Luka Doncic in a midseason trade with the Dallas Mavericks. While many expected the pairing of the five-time All-NBA guard and LeBron James to lead the team on a deep postseason run, they were bounced by the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games in their first-round matchup.
Charles Barkley was among those who were not expecting the Lakers to be legitimate contenders. He did, however, expect Los Angeles to make it out of the first round. He made headlines for a reported remark that James could not be considered a top-five player of all-time if he lost the series.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer clarified his comments during a recent appearance on OutKick.
"I never said that," TNT's Charles Barkley claimed Tuesday. "First of all, I don't know where that came from. I've always said LeBron, on my list, he's number seven all-time. I got Wilt (Chamberlain), Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Russell, Michael (Jordan) and Oscar (Robertson). I got Kobe (Bryant) six and LeBron seven."
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Barkley called out Gilbert Arenas, who came to James' defense following the reports of his initial comments. He noted that he believes LeBron is the seventh greatest player, but the series did not affect the four-time NBA MVP's ranking as he did not believe the Lakers were true title contenders.
The 1992-93 NBA MVP has long been critical of James, with the two publicly exchanging words in the past. While Barkley will likely get plenty of criticism for his rankings, such things are subjective as not everyone will value things equally.
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