Charles Barkley shouts out Russell Westbrook for being 'selfless' & coming off bench for Clippers: "One of my favorite players ever"

For Charles Barkley, Russell Westbrook's sacrificing and choosing to come off the bench didn’t go unnoticed. The NBA legend sent a shoutout to the Los Angeles Clippers star for giving up his role as a starter and perhaps to adjust James Harden to the team.

Barkley said that it is never easy for a player who has an MVP award to give up his role from the starter position. Barkley applauded Westbrook for having enough confidence and self-esteem to make the sacrifice for the team.

“This guy is one of my favorite players ever and he is one of my favorite people. I want to give a shoutout to Russell Westbrook. Who said hey this ain’t going to work…and he is confident enough, got enough self-esteem…For a guy who’s won MVP and who’s gonna be in the Hall of Fame. Man! I love that guy as a player. I want to give him a shoutout for being selfless.”

Westbrook decided to come off the bench for the Clippers in Friday's game against Harden’s former team, the Houston Rockets. Reportedly, it was Russell Westbrook who suggested the idea of him coming off the bench in the game.

How effective and good of an idea it would prove to be in the future is still unknown, but to Russ’ credit, the Clippers finally ended their six-game losing streak with a win against the Rockets. Westbrook only played 17 minutes in the game, registering 8 points and 2 assists.

Since Westbrook decided to come off the bench, the Clippers have won two consecutive games. The second came against the San Antonio Spurs.

Charles Barkley slams TNT team for excluding Nikola Jokic from graphic

The opening night of the NBA saw defending champions the Denver Nuggets start their title defense and take on the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the graphic that TNT released for the show ahead of the opening night didn’t have Nikola Jokic (the reigning NBA Finals MVP) on it.

Charles Barkley was the first to notice it. Chuck apologized to the Denver Nuggets and Joker for the ignorance of the graphic team.

“You sent me that graphic, and I showed it to Ernie, and we just want to apologize to the Nuggets, Joker, and the city of Denver. That’s completely stupid not having Joker on that graphic. I mean, we’re here all day!”

What was even worse was the fact that the poster had LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, and Tatum had his season opener the next night. Instead of putting Joker on the poster, who had season opening on Tuesday, they chose to put Tatum.

The level of disregard that the Nuggets have received from the media has been disrespectful to them. The other team that didn’t win anything got more coverage than the Nuggets, who were largely overlooked.