VIDEO: Charles Barkley Rips Warriors For Playing Kevin Durant

The Golden State Warriors put Kevin Durant on the floor for Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, and it was their worst mistake ever. That’s what Charles Barkley thinks.

Barkley blames the team for letting their star player take role in the game.

“You’ve been asking these guys all morning if there’s somebody to blame. Yes, there is somebody to blame: the Golden State Warriors for putting KD out there,” Barkley said during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up on Tuesday morning. “Listen, that was not right. If you go back and look at the last two weeks—the article comes out, KD’s worst nightmare that the Warriors are winning without him. Then you come out, you read the articles, the Warriors are really unhappy that KD won’t risk his Achilles, they’re frustrated with KD.

“Now this man has to be feeling some type of way, so I blame the Warriors for KD getting hurt, and I don’t care what they say about it. They shouldn’t have put that man out there. You know how I know it? Because he blew out his Achilles.”

Durant may have tried too hard to play, but Barkley is convinced that the Warriors shouldn’t have allowed him to bring the final decision.

“I don’t think you can ever leave it up to a player,” Barkley said. “Players always want to play. But … to put a guy, who hasn’t played basketball in over a month into Game 5 of the Finals, and had some type of move around the day before, I don’t think that’s fair to that man, and you saw the result—it’s just not fair. It’s Game 5 of the world championship. He hasn’t played real basketball in a month. That’s unfair to put him in that situation, and the proof is in the pudding, plain and simple.”

Kevin Durant had to leave the game after 12 minutes on the floor. Raptors fans were happy to see him grabbing his right leg, and they even cheered on his injury. This was the last thing this team needed at this point of the finals.