NBA

Kevin Durant Fires Back at Charles Barkley After Hall of Famer Calls out ‘Sensitive’ Star on 60 Minutes

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Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant, 60 Minutes

Charles Barkley and Kevin Durant have seemingly never seen eye-to-eye. Barkley thinks Durant is emblematic of a sensitive younger generation, and KD thinks Chuck is part of an older generation scraping to stay relevant. While the beef hasn’t flared up in a while, Barkley’s take on Durant during his 60 Minutes profile is sure to add some more gasoline to the almost-extinguished fire.

Charles Barkley reignited his feud with Kevin Durant on ’60 Minutes’

Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant, 60 Minutes
(L-R) Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant | Michael Chang/Getty Images; Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

As the 2023 NCAA Tournament winds down, CBS took the opportunity to do a profile of Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley while he is still working for the network during March Madness.

In the interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim, Barkley touched on a wide range of subjects, from his roots in Leeds, Alabama, to his daughter and new grandson. In true 60 Minutes fashion, though, Wertheim had to bring up some topics that would generate some controversy.

The first of those topics was Kevin Durant.

“He’s very sensitive. Great player,” Barkley started. “He’s part of that generation of players who think he can’t be criticized. He’s never looked in the mirror and said, ‘Man, was that a fair criticism?”

Wertheim then followed up by asking, “We’re in agreement that today’s [NBA] players are a little more sensitive to criticism than your generation?”

“That would be an understatement,” Barkley quickly retorted.

Within a few hours of the interview, Durant took to Twitter to fire back at Barkley.

“This ain’t gettin tiring chuck?” Durant tweeted. “I’ll never respect the words that come out ya mouth fam just deal with it.”

This isn’t the first time Kevin Durant and Charles Barkley got into a war of words, and now it seems almost certain it won’t be the last.

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Tim Crean
Sports Editor

Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.

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Author photo
Tim Crean Sports Editor

Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.

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