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For the past few years, NBA greats Charles Barkley and Draymond Green have been in a war of words, trading jabs at each other on various occasions. It now appears that the two have decided to set aside their differences for a good cause.
The two players now stars on TNT's new show The Arena which premiered last night. On the show, the two NBA defensive legends finally addressed their past differences.
Former NBA MVP and Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley spoke about their long standing issue saying:
"I respect him. He is a hell of a player. I'm just having fun on television. "
Barkley further added that he was rather annoyed by people speculating whether or not he would get along with Draymond Green saying:
"Of course we're gonna get along. I've said many times, I like Draymond.
However, he did add a tongue in cheek comment about Draymond, saying:
"He does annoy me at times on the court, because you've gotta ask him if he's ever committed a foul."
Golden State Warrior forward, Draymond Green spoke about his respect for Barkley saying:
"He's a Black man, I respect him. The issue that I've had is, a lot of people watch the game of basketball, and don't know what they're looking at. So when they look at a Chuck or they look at different guys who has these platforms, they take what you're saying and they listen to that and they run with that."
Draymond further added that the only issue he had was that such derogatory comments, even if they were made as a joke, could affect the careers of NBA player.
"It hasn't necessarily affected my pockets, but there are a lot of guys in this league that people run with what guys say on these platforms, and it affects guys' pockets, and that's the issue that I've had."
When asked about whether they still had a beef, both agreed that there was no longer any bad blood.
"He's not a friend of mine." says NBA star Draymond Green about Charles Barkley
While the NBA greats played nice on camera, before the debut of the show, Draymond had this to say about working with Barkley:
"He’s not a friend of mine. He’s not someone whose opinion matters to me."
He further said:
"This isn’t about me vs. Chuck. This is about continuing to bring awareness to the issues that we face as Black Americans."
The feud between Draymond and Charles had begun as some harmless comments, but quickly escalated into a war of words. They have poked jabs at each other for several years now.
Draymond called himself a better defender and pointed out to Barkley's failure to win an NBA title. Barkley called out Draymond for whining about foul calls and mocked him for being 'the worst member of a boy band'.
While it is unclear whether the bad blood between the two NBA greats is truly over, they have been cordial on screen so far.
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