He said his teammates suffered from “a lack of talent” and “laziness.” He said the roster was “just not good enough top to bottom.” He said, after a tough loss that saw a late double-digit lead blown, that his teammates had all but abandoned him: “Just like General Custer. And there were a lot of Indians.”

Those were not the words of LeBron James in the last few weeks. They belonged, in fact, to the guy who complained this week that James has been “inappropriate” and “whiny” in criticizing the Cavaliers lately. They belonged to Charles Barkley, uttered in the depths of the 1991-92 season, his final in Philadelphia.

That remains one of the whiniest all-time seasons by a star player in the history of the NBA.

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To be fair to Barkley, whose criticism of James has been mostly fair, the situations were somewhat different. Barkley was in his eighth season in Philadelphia and the Sixers were going backwards, dropping from 53 wins in 1989-90, to 44, and to what would eventually be 35 wins. He wanted out of Philly, badly.

James is coming off an NBA Finals victory and has an owner willing to carry the highest payroll in the league in order to hold the bulk of the championship team together. You know how your dad used to say, “Quit whining or I’ll give you something to whine about?” Barkley had something to whine about.

But, wow, did he raise the art of the squeal to a new level that season.

For Barkley, the year was lowlighted by an arrest on a battery charge at a Milwaukee bar at 2:30 on a December morning. Team-wise, the year was probably poisoned by the release of Barkley’s book, "Outrageous!" In it, he criticized the trade that brought his friend Manute Bol and his 1.9-point scoring average to the Sixers (“Hell, my grandmother could score two points a game, as long as she wasn’t double-teamed”) as well as teammates Armon Gilliam, Hersey Hawkins and Charles Shackleford, who would be tongue-lashed by Barkley relentlessly that season.

Shackleford, Barkley wrote, “was basically thrown away by the Nets — the Nets! — after just two years. If the Nets couldn’t use him, it’s hard to imagine how he can be our starting center.”

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Teammates shot back throughout the year. Hawkins and Ron Anderson complained to reporters that Barkley was not setting screens, and that he would dominate the ball. “You've got to set your screen first and worry about getting yourself open second,” Anderson said. “That’s what winning the game is about, helping your teammates out.”

“He’s our most visible player, but, to me, not the type to provide leadership,” Gilliam said, according to late Hall of Famer Phil Jasner of the Daily News. “Not like Magic, not like Michael (Jordan), or Larry (Bird). What they do is all conducive to winning, to making (teammates) better, to building chemistry.”

(Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/10/b3/charles-barkley-ftr-020217jpg_12p0emros4c2w1bsz76w7judsv.jpg?t=-10467599&w=500&quality=80

Barkley was often at war with his teammates. About Anderson and Hawkins’ complaints, he yowled, “That's indicative of the way our team is. Everybody points fingers, but they don't point them at themselves. Everybody comes up with different excuses. We didn’t play up to our potential, or maybe we did. Right now, we’ve got like 12 different agendas. We’re not all trying to achieve the same goal. I’m not going to say anything bad about anybody. I don’t know what they’re being sensitive about. Every player always believes he’s better than he is.”

In mid-March, with the Sixers’ playoff hopes fading after a fifth straight loss, Barkley summed up his season with this elite-level whine: “We have to play like it’s life or death, and we aren't doing that. Of course, death might be better than life right now.”

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But Barkley saved his best mewling for the Sixers’ general manager, Gene Shue. When an unnamed team official was quoted in the media questioning Barkley’s desire to win, Barkley assumed it was Shue (who denied it) and unloaded.

“Gene Shue is a clown whose only ambition is to caddie for (owner) Harold Katz,” Barkley said. “I was good enough to lead us to the championship of the division two years ago, before they made all the changes … I have no respect for Gene Shue. He’s just a robot. He doesn’t do his job. He's just a caddie, that’s what he’s good for.”

After a blowout loss at Golden State with nine games left in the 1991-92 misery, one player was telling Bob Ford of the Inquirer that Barkley “plays for himself,” a notion Barkley would shrug off by saying, “I don’t have to defend myself against anybody. I don’t have time to play games with these guys. If somebody’s got to be to blame, I’ll take the … blame.”

Barkley came out of the shower, according to Ford, picked up a piece of chalk and wrote “April 19,” on the nearby blackboard. He then said, “There it is. The start of golf season.”

He was traded to Phoenix in June. He had gotten what he wanted. He’d whined his way out of town.