Charles Barkley Says Superteams Will Cause NBA Turmoil

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and current TV analyst Charles Barkley believes the NBA is headed to a precarious direction if it fails to properly overlook the formation of Superteams. Known as the Round Mound, he blames the role of player agents for the matter and believes that this will eventually result in labor strife.

Barkley's take stems from the botched Anthony Davis trade which shook the NBA world earlier this month, the Washington Post reported. The 25-year-old had expressed his interest in joining the Los Angeles Lakers, one that most believed was manipulated by Rich Paul, who is also the handler of LeBron James.

“Remember: Your agent works for you, you don’t work for him. They handled that situation wrong. It’s going to come back to bite them in the axx,” said Barkley.

But the NBA great admits that at some point, the Lakers may eventually land Davis. The pitch made before the February trade deadline may have gone haywire but there are still plenty of opportunities. The whole Anthony Davis case is expected to be back in the spotlight this summer.

Should the inevitable happen, how will the New Orleans Pelicans future hold up if they do trade away their franchise player? What would stop other players and teams from doing the same?

These are questions that Barkley raised believing Superteams will eventually end up in an NBA lockout, the New York Post reported.

“With the invention of the superteam, we’re going to raid the small markets and they’re going to become extinct. That’s not a good business model," said Barkley.

Despite a clause in the current CBA that allows teams to retain their stars and enabling them to pay them with a "supermax contract", such has failed to retain competitive balance and prevent lopsided signings. Barkley believes that player agents are largely to blame for circumventing and finding loopholes on the agreement which runs through the 2023-24 NBA season.

“If a player wants to get traded, I have no problem, I understand that. But we can’t have agents saying, ‘I represent this guy and he has to be traded to my team,’ that’s not fair,” said Barkley.