Lebron James vs. Sir Charles

It's time for more NBA controversy and another war of words. The names Iverson and Marbury aren't even involved here. This time it's not a player vs. player or coach vs. player altercation. Instead it's the most explosive superstar in the game versus a hall-of-famer and the NBA big mouth analyst who's never afraid to let his opinions be known. At the center of the controversy is Lebron James, eligible for free agency in a season or so. NBA analyst for TNT, Charles Barkley, made comments that Cleveland Cavalier Lebron James is being disrespectful to his franchise. Barkley basically suggested that Lebron should keep his mouth closed about the free agency, because discussing it now is a slap in the face to the Cavs organization.

Lebron faced a slew of questions while visiting NYC as his Cavs faced the Knicks. The Knicks recently cleared up plenty of cap room in the hopes of landing a big star such as Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, or King James in 2010.

"I think July 1, 2010, is a very big day," James said when the Cavaliers were in New York. "It's probably going to be one of the biggest days in free-agent history in the NBA. So a lot of teams are gearing up to try to prepare themselves to be able to put themselves in position to get one of the big free-agent market guys."

Barkely made his public comments about Lebron on the TNT NBA Studio show as well as Dan Patrick's sports radio show:

"If I was LeBron James, I would shut the hell up," the Hall of Famer said on Patrick's show. "I'm a big LeBron fan. He's a stud. You gotta give him his props. I'm getting so annoyed he's talking about what he's going to do in two years. I think it's disrespectful to the game. I think it's disrespectful to the Cavaliers."

Lebron's response: