Gilbert Arenas on old heads' hypocrisy when criticizing LeBron James: "No matter how you want to pretend you did it, you did it"

Gilbert Arenas came close to calling ex-Houston Rockets forward Mario Elie a hypocrite for his recent comments on LeBron James and the current era.

Elie labeled today's NBA the AAU era because superstars often team up with their friends to chase titles. Since LeBron has the same "habit," the three-time NBA champion claimed he is not worthy of being called the GOAT.

Arenas, however, found Elie's statement ridiculous. He mentioned how Mario played on a Rockets team that added two Dream Team members to help Hakeem Olajuwon win.

"It don't matter how you put the fu**** sugar in the cake," Gil said on the latest episode of the Gil's Arena podcast. "Trust me, it's gonna taste the same. So, no matter how you want to pretend you did it, you did it. That's the thing I don't like about these dudes. "

The Rockets added Drexler and Barkley

Houston acquired Clyde Drexler during its second championship run. Drexler was still in his prime at 32 when he joined his former college buddy Olajuwon in Space City. Then after the Rockets were dethroned in 1996—Seattle SuperSonics swept them in the second round of the playoffs—the organization traded for a 33-year-old Charles Barkley .

The Rockets played with a Big 3 of Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley during the 1996-97 season. Even though they failed to win a championship, Gil thinks that's comparable to LeBron joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami and James playing with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in Cleveland.

"When Charles Barkley want to throw shots, you asked for a trade in the two teams that was number one and two in the Western Conference so stop the bull****. Michael Jordan, when you lose Horace Grant, you went out to replace him with a fuc*** juggernaut. Don't pretend that you didn't do this sh**," added Gil.

Elie said LeBron loves to play "buddy ball"

During his recent appearance on Willie D Live, Elie criticized the current generation of superstars for joining forces and forming super teams. Mario singled out LeBron's move to Miami as an example.

"All these guys wanna join each other…and play with each other," Elie ranted . "No, I wanna beat you. I wanna beat you. LeBron, you say you the GOAT—why you joinin' [Chris] Bosh and—you know what I'm sayin'? We wasn't doin' that in the '90s. Like Dream (Hakeem Olajuwon) callin' [Michael] Jordan, 'You wanna link up?' And callin' [Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson] up, 'Y'all wanna link up and play?'"

While The Dream didn't call Mike, he obviously didn't say no to playing alongside Drexler and Barkley. However, very few criticized them for doing that. Not even Elie, who started 77 games for that 1996-97 Rockets squad.

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