Charles Barkley: Blake Griffin Needs to Be Tougher

On Thursday, Charles Barkley called out Clippers superstar Blake Griffin for being soft and not defending himself. 

“You’ve got to draw a line in the sand,” Barkley said during TNT’s post-game show. “Say, ‘hey listen, I’m going to start hitting y’all back.'” 

Barkley said that “other guys are starting to knock the hell out of you all the time” and that “the toughest guy on your team can’t be 5-3,” which was a joking reference to Chris Paul–who is 6′ 0″–the point guard who is rumored to have also told Griffin to be tougher. 

“You gotta stop these guys from picking on you,” Barkley said before noting that people are starting to talk about Griffin’s being “soft.”

On Wednesday, Clippers player Matt Barnes got ejected from a game against the Thunder after he came to Griffin’s defense and got in a fight with OKC’s Serge Ibaka.