Charles Barkley is never shy about expressing his opinions. He believes bad coaches, in particular, have ruined many players’ careers.
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Barkley recently made an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, and he talked about bad coaches in the NBA.
“I think the biggest thing you need to be a great player is to have a good coaching staff,” Barkley said. “That’s probably the most important thing, the coaching staff. I think more players get ruined by bad coaching staffs because the coaches are cowards. They’re scared to coach.
“I wanted a Pat Riley,” Barkley continued. “I had a great coach, Billy Cunningham, a Gregg Popovich. But most of these coaches today, they are cowards. Because the players make so much money, they don’t have them under control. The players run the team. And the coach needs to realize that the player is going to get him fired.
“We have taken away the power from the coaches, because the players make so much money. But I say bad coaches have ruined more players than anything in the NBA.”
Barkley is absolutely correct. Bad coaches have hurt many players’ careers. He’s also right about the players having too much power, making it hard for coaches to do their jobs.
Since players now make an enormous amount of money, this situation will likely not go away.
