Charles Oakley is Not Having Any of Charles Barkley's "Tough" Talk

After the Cleveland Cavaliers destroyed the Atlanta Hawks 123-98 in Game 2 last night, Charles Barkley called on the Hawks to "take someone out" on Cleveland. Barkley said that Atlanta can't keep letting the Cavs shoot threes on them in a blowout loss like that, and that they needed the equivalent of a hockey goon to come in and push some people around to send a message for the rest of the series. The show then had a discussion and softened Charles's position to "you gotta touch 'em up good."

Charles Barkley ,you better stop talking s*** about Cleveland you was never tough you hide behind TNT
— Charles Oakley (@CharlesOakley34) May 5, 2016

Not long after, Charles Oakley—a Cleveland native who was actually drafted by the Cavs before being traded to the Bulls—voiced his displeasure with Barkley's posturing, telling him to "stop talking shit" and accusing him of hiding behind his TV job. As a player, Oakley was notoriously an ornery enforcer type for his teams, and now he's basically playing the same role as Michael Jordan's friend. Barkley and Jordan were friends at one point but they had a falling out, Barkley assumes, when he criticized some of Jordan's moves with Charlotte. Who knows if that also colors Oakley's opinion of him, but it's some context.

Amazingly, Barkley lateraddressed the tweet on the air, noting that Oakley doesn't like him and then he pulled the ultimate troll move: apathy. Barkley dismissed Oakley by saying he doesn't care about him one way or the other, because he's not "important enough for me to think about."

[TNT]