Hall of Famer blasts NBA for waking a sleeping Celtics giant

After most teams win an NBA Championship, they enter what is called a “championship hangover.” They rest on their laurels and end up falling short of winning back-to-back titles. But the Boston Celtics may have gotten some extra motivation to avoid that trap, and Charles Barkley isn’t thrilled about it.

During an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, the NBA legend and Hall-of-Famer went on a rampage, blaming the league for managing to piss off Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown this summer.

Charles Barkley blames rest of NBA for giving Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown extra motivation

Now, the Celtics are going to be more driven than ever. (H/t Rob Greene of Boston Celtics on SI)

“The NBA found a way to piss both of them off this summer. How ‘bout that?” Barkley said. “All of the NBA could do that, but let’s piss off two of the top 10 players in the NBA after they’re coming off a championship.”

Tatum and Brown helped Boston win their first championship in 16 years this summer. The former led the team in playoff points, rebounds, and assists, while Brown took home the Eastern Conference finals MVP and Finals MVP trophies.

However, each of them had to deal with some frustrating offseason narratives.

When Kawhi Leonard was removed from the Team USA roster, Derrick White was named as the replacement, meaning Brown got snubbed. The Celtics star took to Twitter to express his confusion with the choice, even calling out Nike for being behind the snub.

Meanwhile, Tatum was on the Team USA roster, but he was benched in two of the squad’s six games.

Head coach Steve Kerr benched him in both games against Nikola Jokic and Serbia, and in the other four games, the Celtics star barely got any playing time.

As a result, Tatum was forced to endure a ton of annoying discourse surrounding him being left out of the rotation in the 2024 Olympics.

Considering the summers Tatum and Brown enjoyed prior to their respective Team USA dramas, Barkley is correct—it is frustratingly impressive that the two Celtics superstars will be heading into their title defense season with as much motivation as they undoubtedly currently have.