Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal go off on Kyrie Irving and the Nets

Two NBA legends have gone scorched Earth on a rogue star and delivered a clip to his teammates for putting the team in turmoil.

KD, Irving and Simmons have the Nets in turmoil

NBA legends Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal have tee’d off on the basketcase that is the Brooklyn Nets.

Barkley, the TNT analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer, ripped the Nets and the NBA on “Inside the NBA,” hours after coach Steve Nash was fired.

The attack comes as Brooklyn attempts to deal with star Kyrie Irving, who drew controversy for sharing a link anti-Semitic film on social media, the NY Post reports.

O’Neal expressed his hurt over Irving’s posts and the fact the star continues to divide the game.

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“This is all on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons. Steve Nash is a scapegoat,” Barkley said. “This thing was never going to work when [Kyrie Irving] said we don’t need a coach.”

Barkley added that the team was good during its 2021 playoff run that ultimately resulted in a second-round loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He asserted that the criticism with Nash only started after that particular run.

“Nobody was talking about how bad of a coach Steve Nash was three or four years ago,” he said. “All of the sudden these guys start acting like fools and jackasses and now Steve Nash can’t coach.”

The Nets have begun the year with an underwhelming 2-5 record, and have not yet established a team identity outside of complete chaos. Durant said news of Nash’s axing left him shocked, a response basketball fans weren’t buying.

"This is all on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons. Steve Nash is a scapegoat."

Chucks shares his thoughts on the Nets pic.twitter.com/DxZgtQoUn9

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 1, 2022

Barkley went on to assert that the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver have been far too slow to deal with Irving’s latest incident.

“I think he should have been suspended him,” Barkley said. “I think Adam should have suspended him. First of all, Adam is Jewish — you can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion,” Barkley said.

“You gonna insult me, you have the right, but I have the right to say, ‘You can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion.’ I think the NBA, they made a mistake.

“We’ve suspended people and fined people who have made homophobic slurs. And that was the right thing to do. If you insult the Black community, you should be suspended or fined heavily.”

Barkley pointed to Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards being fined $40,000 for anti-gay remarks made on social media.

“In Irving’s case, the punitive measures needed to be taken sooner,” Barkley said.

“I think he should have been suspended.”

Chuck reacts to Kyrie Irving’s social media posts promoting an antisemitic film pic.twitter.com/IOLVVrSv0l

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 1, 2022

“Him acknowledging the Alex Jones thing, something should have happened with that too, cause that dude’s crazy.

“I can’t believe we ain’t talking about basketball — we talking about this idiot.

“When you’re somebody as great at basketball as him, people are going to listen to what you say. I blame the NBA, he should have been suspended.”

O’Neal was also heavily critical of Irving and his controversial posts, saying the star doesn’t seem to care about the consequences of his actions.

“I was one of the first guys on Twitter and when I realised the power it had, I knew I had to be very responsible,” O’Neal said.

“I try to make people happy. My formula has always been the same – 60 per cent to make you laugh, 30 per cent to inspire and 10 per cent whatever I’m selling.

“You have to be aware of what you are doing. You have to be conscious and I can tell he is not conscious – he doesn’t really care what’s going on.

Get your act together, Kyrie. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)

“But us, I know the game we love and used to promote, it brings people together. It hurts me sometimes when we have to sit up here and talk about stuff that divides the game. We have got to answer for what this idiot has done.

“I stand for equality of all people, I’ve always been like that. It doesn’t matter, your religion or where you’re from. That’s how I was raised.

“I don’t want to sit up here and answer questions for what he’s done. It’s my job to make people happy.

“I can’t answer for what he’s doing – it is obvious by his answers that he doesn’t really care.”

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal go off on Kyrie Irving and the Nets