Let's say this at the start:
Dwyane Wade doesn't understand it.
He's not necessarily stressing about it, but if he's taken at his word, he has no idea why Charles Barkley -- formerly in his "Fave Five" in those 2009 T-Mobile commercials -- has taken so many shots at him since.
The latest was more subtle:
After Kenny Smith, Barkley's colleague on TNT's Inside the NBA, said during Monday's halftime that Wade had aged better than any star over the past five years, Barkley scoffed: "He's not that old."
This, of course, comes after half a decade of Barkley saying that Wade is getting old.
(The irony of that contradiction wasn't lost on Wade when this was mentioned to him after Monday's win.)
Later, Barkley did say that Wade had played "fantastic" in Monday's win, even while continuing to belittle the Heat.
Here are just a few of the other instances:
-- Barkley has repeatedly said that he roots for LeBron James to win in Cleveland.
There are countless examples, but here's one from July of 2014, just before James chose to leave Miami to return to the Cavaliers:
'It was very disappointing when he left Cleveland the first time and I’d be very disappointed if he doesn’t go back.”
He didn't really need to say that. He spent four years on James' back, the entire time the latter was with the Heat.
He was strident enough early that Wade felt the need to respond. In an ESPN interview with Rachel Nichols near the start of the Big Three era in 2010, Wade said that Barkley needed to "look in the mirror," considering that the former Sixers and Suns star teamed up with other superstars in Houston. Wade didn't have all the dates correct, in terms of when Clyde Drexler and Scottie Pippen were there with Hakeem Olajuwon, but Wade's comments were among the first real signs of frost.
-- In December 2012, when Wade was just 30, Barkley said this:
“The toughest thing for Dwyane Wade is understanding that he’s starting to lose his talent and now he has to learn how to play below the basket. The toughest thing when you’re a great player or very athletic, when you can’t jump over a building anymore, you have to learn how to play.”
Wade then made 20-of-25 shots over a two-game period, then-teammate James jumped in...
''It means Charles Barkley needs to shut up. I mean, the man's shooting 80 percent from the floor in the last couple games. Come on, man. That's like crazy, right? That's why [he is] who he is.''
Barkley then called both of them sensitive.
-- In February 2015, Barkley said that "Dwyane's great, he's a Hall of Famer... but he didn't deserve to make the All-Star team." After Wade's wife, Gabrielle Union, in a tweet, equated Barkley's statement to "me talkin bout Meryl Streep but I ain't won nuthin," Barkley went on to praise Union's beauty but slight her acting.
-- Earlier this season, Barkley and Smith mocked the Snapchats that Wade and LeBron -- no longer teammates -- posted while working out together.
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