After living through it herself, Michelle Beadle loves that Charles Barkley called ESPN out for forcing LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers topics on shows.
Last week, Barkley took one of his many shots at ESPN, specifically calling Kendrick Perkins out as he ripped “the fools” on that network for its apparent obsession with James and the Lakers. It sparked a back-and-forth, garnering rebuttals from Perkins and Stephen A. Smith. But Barkley recently garnered support from Beadle, who spent the better part of a decade at ESPN between 2009-2019.
“I worked there. We had to just always talk about the Lakers,” Beadle told her Mad Dog Sports Radio co-host Cody Decker. “We always talked about the Cowboys. It’s brain-numbing formulated bullsh*t. There were days it was like, ‘How are we forcing a story about this? There are actually stories that people might care about.’
“Because here’s the thing about that place, it is national, it is global in some places. I get it, you think that’s what moves the needle, but Barkley’s right and this is what we’ve been trying to say all damn season. There are fun stories happening right now.”
Beadle isn’t the first ex-ESPN employee to accuse the network of forcing topics and discussions about James. Paul Pierce previously said he was forced to talk about LeBron during his time at ESPN. Beadle even once accused LeBron of trying to get her fired from ESPN because she mocked The Decision.
“It is not the job of one network, although I guess you could argue that it is, to just constantly suck off one player in the league and only talk about that,” Beadle said.
That one network and player would presumably be ESPN and LeBron James.
Beadle argued ESPN should be enjoying the passing of the baton to younger players while focusing less on the Lakers and more on the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I just love that Barkley calls people by name. I respect that,” Beadle continued. “And I know that Kendrick Perkins has responded. We all know nothing’s gonna come of this. There’s gonna be a lot of hugging it out stuff when they see each other. It always is. I wish people held grudges like I hold grudges.”