A common refrain about today’s NBA is that the league has become soft, from its players to coaches to the endless rule changes. For better or worse, basketball is played much differently in 2025 than it was ten, twenty, and thirty years ago.
Stephen Curry kick-started a move towards three-point shooting and analytical efficiency in the modern game with his infinite range and green light from deep. Rule changes have also legislated much of the physicality out of the sport, though you could argue that most of it was football-type contact that didn’t need to be in the game.
Still, there’s no doubt that, while NBA basketball remains physical, especially in the playoffs, the league has become very different over the years. Former players make their opinions known: they don’t approve of the softening of the sport compared to when they played years ago.
While older generations of NBA guys make some legitimate points, they also disrespect the current players and the modern game at times with needless critiques. Recently, one of the all-time greats had some harsh comments about who’s to blame for certain rule changes in the sport.
Charles Barkley Blamed LeBron/KD For New CBA
For many fans, the discussion surrounding the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and its luxury tax thresholds/aprons is enough to be bored to sleep. However, the CBA that was established in the summer of 2023 between the owners and the Players’ Association has completely transformed team construction in the modern NBA.
Charles Barkley gave his take on who is to blame for the unpopular new CBA on The Bill Simmons Podcast a few days ago. According to Barkley, who correctly asserted that the agreement was negotiated to eliminate superteams from basketball, which it certainly accomplished. The problem is the endless unintended consequences for the league.
Chuck puts the responsibility for this unpleasant development squarely on the shoulders of two players: LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Why? Well, because the two legends ushered in the era of player mobility and superteams with their controversial free-agent decisions.
For James, it was his “The Decision” party and the choice to bring Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade in South Beach, creating an apparently unbeatable squad from 2010-2014. In the absurd ESPN special that the King aired in the summer of 2010, he even promised that they would win “not one, not two, not three…. but seven championships.”
LeBron was just 25 years old then, and much more immature, but his decision to build an unstoppable squad through free agency not only angered NBA fans, but set the precedent for what Durant did just six years later.
After blowing a 3-1 lead to the 73-win Golden State Warriors in 2016, KD did the unthinkable and joined them in the off-season. Teaming up with Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala formed the greatest team of all-time, making Durant the most hated player in the world for a few seasons.
According to Barkley, the damaging new CBA isn’t commissioner Adam Silver’s fault, but rather the players who’d rather team up than go compete against each other for the title. He mostly blames James and Durant, but also others that followed their example in the time since then.
“Adam Silver had to do something. We can’t let one team hoard all the good players. They had Klay, Steph and Draymond and they didn’t need KD. Don’t get mad at Adam Silver because ya’ll wanted to play together and dominate the league because ya’ll don’t want to compete.” -Charles Barkley
Although old legends like Barkley can never be taken fully seriously with their opinions on the modern game because of their clear bias, Charles is on the mark here. Players exercising their freedom to move anywhere they want regardless of competition is a main factor for the new CBA, which is intended to create parity in the league.
(Seven straight years with a new champion says it’s working).
However, what Barkley gets wrong is that there weren’t superteams before James chose Miami on that fateful day. No, the opposite is actually true: there’s almost never NOT been stacked teams that dominate the league. Look back through NBA history, and you’ll find that most championships were won with two or more of the sport’s best players suiting up together.
The only decade before the 2020s without unbeatable teams was also its most unpopular one, the 1970s. Magic played with Kareem. Jordan played with Pippen. Kobe played with Shaq. Bill Russell had five of the best eight players in the league on his Celtics’ dynasty in the 60s. This is simply how the sport works.
What’s Wrong With the New CBA?
Under previous agreements, owners who wanted to spend extra money to build a contending roster were able to go over the salary cap with much fewer consequences. They’d pay a reasonable luxury tax penalty and move on with their lives, hoping to recoup the losses with increased sales revenue and deeper playoff runs.
Since 2023, the difficulty in adding players past the salary cap has increased tenfold due to extremely punitive penalties enforced on those teams. Setting aside the absurd luxury tax penalties, teams are hamstrung in terms of roster construction so badly that the second apron is basically a hard cap.
Those that enter the second apron cannot combine salaries for trades, are limited in their ability to add expensive veterans, and face many other restrictions. Because of this, contending windows have been reduced to a few years with the same core, rather than having a longer runway, like in the past.
We’ve seen countless examples of this issue harming the continuity of elite teams in just the past two seasons, as franchises are now penalized for drafting and developing star players, which should be the whole point of basketball.
A perfect case just occurred with the Boston Celtics, who dismantled their 2024 title team just one season later after being upset by the New York Knicks in the 2025 playoffs. Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear forced Boston to salary dump Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis simply because it was too expensive to keep them.
Boston was penalized for drafting and developing Tatum and Jaylen Brown for nearly a decade. They became stars, demanded max contracts, and now the Celtics have to cut corners for the rest of their duo’s time together. Boston was even rumored to be shopping Brown simply because of this problem, which is terrible for basketball.
While parity has been fun to watch, the sport desperately needs to move away from its current structure. Teams shouldn’t be penalized for drafting, developing, and building great rosters the hard way.
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