Assessing Charles Barkley’s comments regarding LeBron James and the Bad Boys

Charles Barkley is making headlines for saying LeBron James would not have wanted any part of the Bad Boy Pistons, but is he right?

It is common when comparing eras to mention the style of play to either boost the case or denigrate the reputation of a player. For instance, fans look at the lack of 3-point shooting to downgrade players from past generations. Charles Barkley often falls victim to this when he criticizes jump-shooting teams, but he took a different route when appearing on John Calipiri’s show on Wednesday. He had some things to say about LeBron James and how things would have gone for him in days gone by in the NBA.

Barkley indicated that as great as he thinks James is he would not have wanted any part of the physicality of the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons, using this as a way to favorably compare Michael Jordan to LeBron James.

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This seems like a nonsensical argument to me. It is hard to say that anyone would have openly volunteered for the physical beating that the Pistons brought to Jordan during those times so I understand James would not have necessarily wanted to get hammered to that extent.

However, implying that James would not have adapted to the era he was playing in seems foolhardy when we constantly give players like Bird, Jordan and Russell the benefit of the doubt that they would have adapted to the present day.

LeBron James is one of the most physically dominant players of all time and is listed at 6’9’’ and 250 lbs. By comparison, Jordan was listed at 216 lbs. and this is not taking into account how much smaller he was before he famously bulked up to beat the Pistons. The only members of the Pistons who are taller than James are Darryl Dawkins, James Edwards, Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn and John Salley. Of those five men, only one of them outweighs James (Darryl Dawkins) and he played less than four minutes per game.

James takes a physical beating in today’s game and while he is infamous for complaining for fouls, that is more a matter of playing to today’s referees than any physical issue he has. That type of behavior would not have flown in that time period and therefore I do not believe James would have complained for as many calls.

Finally, looking back at how LeBron James has performed against the better defenses of his era can give some indication of why this take is misguided. The top six defensive teams LeBron James played against in his career are the San Antonio Spurs (2004 and 2005), the Detroit Pistons (2004), the Boston Celtics (2008), the Chicago Bulls (2011) and the Indiana Pacers (2014).

Against the Spurs and Pistons, James was 19 years old in all but one of those games and still averaged 23.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists against the Spurs and 14 points, 4.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game against the Pistons. Later, against the champion Celtics, he faced them in the regular season and in the postseason. In the regular season, he averaged 32.3 points, 7 rebounds and 9.7 assists and then 26.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 7.6 assists.

Once he moved to Miami he would clash against the Bulls and the Pacers in both the regular and postseason. Against the Bulls he averaged 27.5 points, 9 rebounds and 5.5 assists (25.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists in the playoffs) and against the Pacers he put up 28.8 points, 9.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists (22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the postseason). Most importantly he won two of the three playoff series he played against all-time great defenses.