Charles Barkley: Brooklyn Nets ‘scariest thing in NBA’ when injured players get healthy | NBA News

The Brooklyn Nets are currently in freefall but Charles Barkley thinks the future looks bright for the team following the blockbuster trade before the deadline.

The Nets have lost 12 of their last 14 games including Thursday night’s 117-103 defeat at home to the Washington Wizards.

They now sit eighth in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 31-28 but according to the Inside The NBA analyst Charles Barkley, they have nothing to worry about.

He reckons the acquisition of Ben Simmons as well as Seth Curry and Andre Drummond – in the trade which took James Harden to Philadelphia – to pair alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, makes them the most fearsome team in the league.

“The next three months, the [Brooklyn Nets] are the scariest thing on that [Eastern Conference] board,” said Barkley.

“When KD and Kyrie and Ben Simmons get together – I like the addition of Seth Curry, I love Drummond coming off the bench – that to me is the scariest thing in the NBA.”

Barkley was also severely critical of the New York vaccine mandate which means Irving cannot play in home games for the Brooklyn Nets.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver weighed in on the issue earlier this week, saying he believed Mayor Eric Adams should look at the mandate, which requires athletes playing for the city’s teams to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to play in public venues.

Adams later agreed that there were problems with the rule, which doesn’t apply to visiting players, but said he is hesitant to make a change.

Silver said it is odd that the mandate only applies to players on the local teams while an unvaccinated opponent is allowed to play.

“I mean, I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who’s unvaccinated can play in Barclays but the home player can’t,” Silver said in an interview with ESPN.

Barkley agreed with Silver, saying: “I did not know until I saw him on television yesterday that everybody who doesn’t play in New York can play [unvaccinated]. That’s got to be the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.

“If you’re going to let random strangers come into the city, unvaccinated, why would you not let Kyrie [play]? I wish he would get vaccinated but that’s got to be one of the dumbest stupidest rules in the history of civilisation.”

Adams was asked at a news conference later about Silver’s comments and whether he might adjust the rule.

“I think the rule is unfair,” said Adams. “I believe that we are saying to out-of-town athletes that they can come in and not be vaccinated. Yet New York athletes, you have to be vaccinated.

Adams replaced former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who imposed the city’s vaccine requirements last year.