Charles Barkley Says Warriors Play "Girly" Basketball During Debate With Jerry Rice

During a debate with Jerry Rice, Charles Barkley said the Warriors play "girly” basketball.

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Complex Original

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Ever since Charles Barkley said that he didn’t think a jump shooting team like the Warriors could ever win a championship back during the 2014-15 NBA season, he has been Public Enemy No. 1 for many Golden State fans. Barkley hasn’t done himself many favors as he’s continued to take shots at the team over the course of the last year—he said the 1995-96 Bulls would "kill" the 2015-16 Warriors in December and, in early July, he ripped Kevin Durant for signing with the Warriors—but Warriors fan have gone above and beyond (and in some cases, gone a little bit too far) to show their displeasure with Barkley.

Despite this, it doesn't sound like Barkley plans to stop trolling the Warriors anytime soon.

Over the weekend, Barkley played in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He finished dead last in the tournament—30 strokes behind Larry the freaking Cable Guy!—but it looks like he still made the most of it by having a great time at a party at the Lake Tahoe Casino. In the clip above, you’ll see that it appears as though Barkley needed a friend to keep him upright towards the end of the night. But you'll also see that Barkley and Rice had a spirited debate on stage in front of the entire club about—what else?—the Warriors.

The debate featured this exchange, which sounded like every drunken sports argument ever and included Barkley telling Rice about how he thinks the Warriors play "girly" basketball and Rice responding by showing off one of his Super Bowl rings:

Rice: Charles, do you know how many fucking Super Bowls I have?

The Warriors fans who were in the house absolutely loved Rice’s reaction to Barkley’s commentary. You can watch it go down from a different angle here:

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Barkley appeared on Bleacher Report Radio on Tuesday and was asked about his argument with Rice. He downplayed it and also pointed out how his criticisms of the Warriors have come back to bite him.

It really bothers me that people think I don’t like the Golden State Warriors, and everybody in the Bay Area hates me for some reason. Like, when I said the Warriors couldn’t win shooting jumpers, that was actually just a basketball opinion. I never said—I said Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] are the best backcourt maybe in NBA history. Not just shooting. They’re the best shooters easily in my opinion. But they may go down as the greatest backcourt in NBA history. You got to like Draymond [Green]. I love [Andre] Iguodala. Obviously they got Kevin [Durant] now. And all I’ver ever said about the Warriors actually is, ‘I don’t know if you can win a championship shooting jumpers with that little small unit they got out there.' And I said, even this year, 'If they win the championship, I will get on my knees and say I was 100 percent wrong.'

Here’s a transcript of what Barkley had to say:

A lot of fun with it, as it turns out. You can watch Barkley and Rice go at it in the clip at the top (if you missed it on Monday, you can also watch Rice give a girl a lap dance at the same party). Barkley has really painted himself into a corner when it comes to his contentious relationship with #dubnation, hasn't he?

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