Barkley: Sixers have 'no chance' vs. Miami
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Barkley: Sixers have 'no chance' vs. Miami
Charles Barkley has given voice to what has been a popular view entering the first-round series between the Sixers and Miami, and probably became more popular after Monday night's blowout:
“[The 76ers have] got no chance of beating Miami, they are going to get swept," Barkley said on TNT. "They don’t have an advantage at any position. They can’t run with Miami, they can’t pound them inside, so they are 0-2.”
Asked about the chance of his being wrong, Barkley replied: "I might be mistaken, but I’m never gonna be wrong.”
Here are few other notes from the TNT crew as it relates to the Heat and Sixers:
* Reggie Miller on 76ers forward Elton Brand and guard Lou Williams serving as resources to coach Doug Collins: “Doug Collins has two [guys who have a locker room presence] on this team, a younger one and an older one. The older one, Elton Brand, leads by example. He comes to work early, [he’s] meticulous when it comes to game plans and he’s the voice of his team. The heartbeat and the pulse is Lou Williams. He’s the one who can tell the temperature and gauge what these younger players are doing. [Coach Collins] is always going to Lou Williams and saying, ‘What can I do to become a better coach to these younger guys?’”
* Miller on Heat coach Erik Spoelstra comparing the defense of 76ers forward Andre Iguodala to Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen: “That’s high praise. I understand where he’s coming from, but Scottie Pippen was in a different league defensively.”
* Miller on the Miami Heat becoming the New York Yankees of basketball: “Overnight this Heat team became the New York Yankees of basketball, the most hated team in the league. Everyone jumped on board of this being the evil empire. [The Heat] struggled early, they found their way, but now that we get to the playoffs we get to see what the big hubbub was about.”
* Miller on the impact of 76eres coach Doug Collins: “I applaud what Coach Collins has done. It’s tough to get young players to respond, but these guys have, they’ve done it all year. They got off to a slow start, but he stayed the course.”
* Miller on the 76ers needing the offensive impact of guard Lou Williams: “[The 76ers] have to find a way to get [Lou Williams] going offensively. If they are going to win a game in this series, he’s going to have to play huge when this team gets back to Philadelphia.”
* Miller on the 76ers needing to finish the game with a spark that will carry over to Game 3: “When you’re on the road and you’re getting beat like this in the playoffs your mind tends to wander especially for a young team like the Sixers. You’ve got to find a little spark, Doug Collins is looking for something to carry over to Game 3. You’ve got to have something on the mind of Miami. Right now Miami is thinking this is going to be a 4-0 sweep, you’ve got to find something to fall back on.”
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For once, I agree with Barkley.— PortCity- just stating the obvious. sixers are in a different hemisphere from the elite teams, like the heat.— Menace.II.Sobriety
- Charles was right last night and he was right earlier in the season when he said the sixers should have tanked.
To clarify one point from Charles. After saying the sixers didnt have an advantage at any position he corrected himself and said that they did have an advantage at point guard and that he really likes Jrue Holiday. So its not all bad from Sir Charles!— Xdaxblessedx - Who isn't saying this?— shawnmac
- Wow, Charles is Captain obvious! Way to go out on a limb with that prediction.— irish72
- Any knucklehead would know that— duck2late2
- Barkley is a big mouth loser!!! Dumb as they come— tbonzya
- Charles is right. Did anyone realistically expect the Sixers to even make the playoffs? What they accomplished is admirable, but there was no way they were going to beat Miami. Hell, if they win 1 game, that would be a best case scenario.— flyerdup
- Reggie Miller is a moron and obviously never watched the Sixers all year. Several times, he mistook Jrue for Meeks, and he said twice that for the Sixers to have a chance to win, Iguodola would have to take 15-20 shots. What a dope. That's a sure loss if that happens.— Jokerman
- The Chuckster could be wrong but i doubt it.— Don Cornelius
- you got that right, Charles. Tough call.— chollie
- Actually Barkley said the Sixers didn't have a chance a few months ago and a lot of people on here slammed him. In fact, he said that the Sixers should focus on the future (i.e. play the younger guys and work towards a high draft pick) because the current wouldn't do anything come playoff time. But many of the people were blinded by the Sixers playing "good" after the New Year. I guess he does know what he's talking about.— J.Bradley
- He knows what he's talking about in the sense they should play the younger guys. He has no clue when he says they should tank and hope for a good draft pick. Intentionally losing only builds losers. And you don't get anything from the draft unless you have the number one pick....pretty sure we proved that last year. the sixers should look to trade brand and or iggy if possible to anyone in a salary dump. let the young guys play....SIGN THAD and let the staring lineup include ET, THAD, HOLIDAY and whoever they can pick up in the salary dump. They should also look to dump noc, songila and speights. hopefully they can settle the cba quickly. Once that's done you're going to learn a lot about doug collins and rod thorn this offseason.— 76ers in 2076
- 76ers in 2076: it will be extremely difficult to move either Brand or Iguodala next season, but especially Brand, who will be 33 years old and owed $17 million while Iguodala will be owed $13.5 million, not that high a number in the NBA, but his pathetic offensive display in the playoffs will not help his value. Both players will have expiring contracts in 2012-13, although Iguodala has a qualifying offer for 2013-14 of $15.9 million. Nocioni, although owed $6.6 million next season, will be an expiring contract, but considering how poorly and how little he has played this season, would probably garner little in return at the trade deadline. Songaila is an expiring contract, as is Kapono, so both are gone. There was some league-wide interest in Speights, but the Sixers most likely would not get anything of value in return for him, given his overall poor play this season. Perhaps the Sixers should try to stockpile draft picks. Unless Thorn can pull off a dramatic move, I believe that Brand, Iguodala, Hawes, Meeks, Holiday, Turner, Young, Brackins, and Williams will be the core moving forward next season. My guess is that the Sixers will not be able to make significant changes until 2012-13 and, of course, much will also depend on the forthcoming lockout and new CBA.— chuckw
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
