Earlier this week, the San Antonio Spurs suffered a historically embarrassing meltdown, losing a commanding 29-point lead over the New York Knicks in NBA Finals Game 4, as the home team seized the game, winning on a tip-in shot with 1.2 seconds remaining.
Many people witnessed the Spurs’ epic collapse and called it out, including ESPN’s “Inside the NBA” analyst Charles Barkley, who called it “dumb basketball” on the part of the losing team.
Before Game 5 in San Antonio, Barkley revealed that he received several calls about those remarks from NBA coaches, and he wanted to clarify what he meant when he made the statement on air.
“I want to be clear, crystal clear. So, when I said it was really dumb basketball the other night, I was talking about the players. I want to make it clear that I wasn’t talking about coach Johnson. I think coach Johnson is a really good, young coach. He’s got a really, really bright future,” he said.
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Barkley explained that the coach could’ve called some timeouts, but he wasn’t the one who shot poorly like the Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox, and he didn’t draw up plays for them to shoot nine 3-pointers in a row, which San Antonio decided to do when up 25 points.
“The players were doing dumb stuff, not the coach,” Barkley said on ESPN’s pre-game show.
Shaquille O’Neal added that it is a coach’s job to instill discipline, and his players didn’t appear to have the discipline in that game. However, Barkley reiterated that he didn’t want to bash the Spurs’ coach.
One of the biggest criticisms against the Spurs came with Fox, who had a chance to dribble the ball after stealing it from the Knicks and breaking away past the half-court line. However, Fox decided to attempt a layup to try to increase his team’s lead to three, rather than keep dribbling and let the Knicks foul him.
That decision proved a costly mistake, as his layup attempt was blocked and the Spurs recovered the ball, setting up OG Anunoby’s thrilling tip-in to win, 107-106.
Barkley wanted to ensure that he directed his criticism appropriately towards player decisions, rather than the coach’s. That said, Johnson did have opportunities to call timeouts and make different plays that could’ve helped his team’s mindset in securing a win.
The Spurs would get a chance to put that horrific loss behind them, as they hosted a must-win Game 5 on Saturday night against the New York Knicks.
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