"What do you mean it's not fair?" - Charles Barkley blames LeBron James and Kevin Durant's actions for causing NBA's second apron

The way Hall of Famer Charles Barkley sees things, LeBron James and Kevin Durant are responsible for the "superteam" era in the NBA. Although the NBA's second apron has been a debate ever since the league ratified the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, Barkley thinks the league was right to punish teams for excessively and repeatedly exceeding the salary cap.

During his appearance on the Bill Simmons show, Barkley took aim at both James and Durant for their respective moves to Miami and Golden State. Because of this, the NBA had to come up with a way to stop players from wanting to team up to chase rings.

"Why did they have to come up with bulls*** rules, Bill? Because all these guys want to play together and not compete," Barkley said. "If I had a dollar for every time I heard 'the second apron,' why did Adam Silver have to put the second apron in?

"Because LeBron got all his guys together. KD wanted to go play with the Warriors. I hate when I hear, 'Man, the second apron's not fair.' What do you mean it's not fair? If y'all stop all wanting to play together, we wouldn't have to make up bogus a** rules to stop y'all from playing together."

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Bill Simmons tells Charles Barkley he doesn't think NBPA understood full impact of second apron

While Charles Barkley is a defender of the second apron, Bill Simmons doesn't think that the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) fully understood the ramifications of the second apron.

Simmons doesn't believe the players realized adding a second apron would mean that teams like the Boston Celtics and OKC Thunder would have to eventually blow things up when the payroll became too expensive.

While OKC, which won the 2024-25 NBA Finals, currently has a young roster and a payroll below the second apron, the front office has a limited runway before the team in its current iteration becomes too expensive.

The way Simmons sees things, the second apron punishes teams like the Thunder, whose front office has carefully constructed its roster. He said:

"The Players Association, I don't think, realized that putting these rules in is going to make all these teams blow up, and you're basically going to be able to afford two or three guys max, and then you're going to have to cut corners everywhere else. ... I don't like penalizing people for smart."

Considering the CBA runs through the 2029-30 season, change is likely far off.