Charles Barkley deftly combines a propensity to opine with an energetic, matter-of-fact delivery–even when what he’s expressing is very far from an actual matter of fact. Barkley’s made a good post-basketball career as a commentator doing it. (And look, it’s not like he says he was shot down on a war helicopter–it’s just hoops.)
Barkley’s latest rant was against analytics, which he says is an overrated tool used by smart guys who can’t get girls–or something like that.* Barkley thinks the NBA’s all about coaching and talent, not analytics–even though the coaches and talent he lauds spend a LOT of time analyzing game film and tendencies. (Much of that talent even gets discovered through analytics.) Barkley’s tendency to go too far usually hurts his logic, such as it is. Here his point gets diluted by the fact that the most famous of all analytics guys was played by Brad Pitt in the Moneyball movie. Pitt, you’d have to think, had no trouble with the girls in high school.
*Quote: “All these guys who run these organizations who talk about analytics, they have one thing in common. They’re a bunch of guys who ain’t never played the game, and they never got the girls in high school, and they just want to get in the game.”
