The last time LeBron James made it past the first round of the playoffs was last year when his Lakers came up against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Out of 13 playoff appearances, Kevin Durant last made it past the first round in 2023 as well and lost to Denver in the semifinals. Notably, the championship-winning team in 8 out of the last 11 Finals has featured at least one of them. But 2024 might be marking the end of an era in the NBA as none of them are in the Playoffs anymore.

For the first time since 2005, these three Titans aren’t even in the second round of the playoffs. It’s something Charles Barkley is blaring off. Chuck, a proponent of ‘sports is a young man’s game,’ said on Inside the NBA, “These young kids… you got Steph Curry, KD, and LeBron are all gone home, and you got young guys like Ant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still here. You got Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, man. It’s a changing of the guard, plain and simple.”

The 2010s were dominated by the trio but their championship contentions are waning. Barkley has especially been sounding off that their dominance is over. He’s instead hyped for the youngsters in OKC and others like Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Bron has missed the playoffs four times in his career (2003-04, 2004-05, 2018-19, 2021-22). Since his 2020 title, this season is the second time he’s failed to advance past the first round. Durant has only missed the postseason in his first two seasons and made it to the second round around 10 times. Curry has made nine playoff appearances and advanced to the second round in eight of those. But the Lakers, Suns, and Warriors’ championship odds were looking dodgy, not solely because of these three or their ages.

Charles Barkley watches a young man’s sport

Barkley’s opinions were mostly related to Steph and the Warriors, including calling the team of veterans old and “cooked.” Ahead of the Warriors getting eliminated from the play-in tournament, he said, “Old people, they just get older, they don’t get healthier, they don’t get better.” Even Shaquille O’Neal finally agreed with Chuck that it’s time for the Dubs to consider more younger players.

Barkley was sad that ‘his’ Phoenix Suns were swept but he was critical about the lack of backup to Kevin Durant. Instead, he’s seeing real title contenders in the Timberwolves led by Anthony Edwards.

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Edwards will now face off against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. The Joker has a fan in Chuck but even before the Lakers were eliminated, he and Shaq were resigned to the Nuggets heading to the next round over the Lakers.