Big Trouble: Charles Barkley criticises Michael Malone’s motivational tactics

Charles Barkley dislikes one motivational method utilised by Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone during the Western Conference semifinals.

 

Malone admitted to the media on Saturday that he had a two-minute edit of various NBA analysts saying the Nuggets were finished after losing 2-0 to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Malone stated that, at that time, their perspectives were not necessarily wrong, and the cut was not personal, but he felt it would “strike a chord” with his players and help encourage them to turn the game around.

 

Barkley was likely one of those analysts featured in that edit. After Game 2, he predicted the Nuggets would be swept, and said that Minnesota was simply the better team. TNT replayed those comments Monday after the Nuggets won two straight in Minnesota to even the series, prompting Barkley to issue a rather strong response.

 

 

“We get paid to give an opinion. If you watched those first two games, you didn’t think Denver was going to win. They act like we just pulled it out of our a– or someone just made it up,” Barkley said. “You watch those first two games, you’re like, ‘Man, the Minnesota Wolves look better than the Denver Nuggets.’ Now Denver’s playing great, and he wants to act like he played a tape. Man, I don’t care.

“I’ve always liked Mike Malone. But he annoys me because he thinks, hey, he won a championship. He ain’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. We only can go by what we saw, and if you watched those first two games, you said, ‘Damn.’ Give the Denver Nuggets credit, but don’t act like that tape spurred the Nuggets.”

Malone’s point did not seem to be that his intervention turned the series around. It was simply an insight into how he motivated his team. He even admitted that Barkley and others who wrote off the Nuggets after two games were not necessarily wrong in thinking that way.