The battle between Charles Barkley and Kevin Durant continues.
After Durant took to Instagram to fire back on Barkley's "Inside the NBA" comments calling the Nets' star a "bus rider," Barkley doubled down on Tuesday on his previous assessment of Durant, saying that Durant's comments didn't bother him at all before calling him, "sensitive Cindy."
"You think they put that play-bin banner up already? I could put up stuff about him and Russell [Westbrook] and James [Harden] and Serge Ibaka," Barkley said. "KD's a great player. Only point I was making is life is different when you driving the bus."
Chuck responds to Kevin Durant pic.twitter.com/bqyhddFUmv
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 26, 2022
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Kenny Smith responded to Barkley's comments saying he felt Barkley's comments about "bus drivers" and "bus riders" disrespected Durant and what he had accomplished. Smith added it gave "ignorant people" the chance to say that Barkley didn't win a championship.
"I think that you are a champion, but it goes so many other things and variables to win a championship," Smith said.
Barkley rebuffed Smith, saying when he's in the room with fellow members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he doesn't get to "sit at their table ... because they're champions."
Following the Nets' first-round sweep against the Celtics, Barkley implied that Durant is a "bus rider," meaning someone who was along for the ride on the way to winning a championship.
MORE: What's next for the Nets?
"You guys always talk about that championship stuff. I try to tell y'all, all these bus riders, they don't mean nothing to me. If you ain't driving the bus, don't walk around talking about you a champion," Barkley said.
If you riding the bus, I don't want to hear it. All these guys walking around with championship rings, y'all bus riders. When you the bus driver and you've got all the pressure where you have to play well or you're gonna get the blame, that's a different animal.
Barkley is likely referring to Durant having his only two NBA championship rings as a member of the Warriors, when he joined the superteam alongside Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — a trio that had already been to two NBA Finals. On those teams, Curry remained the focal point of the offense, though Durant twice won the NBA Finals MVP.
Since joining the Nets, Durant has been unable to recapture that same success, with Brooklyn advancing no farther than the Eastern Conference semifinal in his two healthy years with the team. Undoubtedly, he has been the "bus driver" for those teams.
MORE: Timeline of the Nets' disappointing season
Durant took exception to Barkley's comments, and fired back on Instagram on Tuesday morning. He posted pictures on his story of Barkley standing alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen and Clyde Drexler during his time with the Rockets, and others of him standing with Julius Irving, Moses Malone, Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney with the 76ers.
On one photo of him with Irving, Malone, Cheeks and Toney, Durant wrote, "Where would Chuck be without the big homies."
Kevin Durant responds to Charles Barkley by posting these images to Instagram Stories 👀🍿 pic.twitter.com/dmzbRyK8zx
— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 (@sportingnews) April 26, 2022
This isn't the first time things have gotten awkward with Durant and the Inside the NBA crew.
Durant's cringeworthy interview with the TNT crew after his first game with the Nets made headlines back in 2020.
Durant's attention, lack thereof, to Barkley's questions noticeably stuck out. So, this has likely been brewing for some time.
The ball is now in Durant's court. He was quick to respond the first time. Will the war of words continue?
