Amin Elhassan

It's people like Jamel Hill and Michael Smith and Bomani Jones.

They'd all had conversations whenever it arose again.

whenever it intersected into the world of sports.

I think what it is is a little bit of, you're supposed to be one of us.

Players are always very sensitive to things that other players say.

They brush aside what the mortals say.

You know, LeBron has a quote that he loves from Teddy Roosevelt about,

the words of the critic and the man in the arena, and if you haven't stepped in the arena, why should I respect your opinion?

But Charles Barkley is like, yeah, I'm in that arena.

I'm in that arena heavy.

I'm in the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield.

Google me.

But what LeBron does at that moment is he doesn't do what Shaq does usually in these moments, which is, well, how many rings do you have?

That's the Shaq move.

LeBron's move is, wait a second.

I have never gotten in trouble with the law.

I show up, I do my job.

You, on the other hand, and he's pointing out things that are irrefutable about Charles Barkley and his professionalism during his career.

So he says, how can you question my professionalism and what's appropriate and inappropriate when you had an entire career of inappropriate behavior?

And I think that is both, A, a very...