Barkley had a great team in phoenix. They were up 3-1 on the rockets, then lost that series. That's not on "not having kobe, wade" hell hakeem didn't have the equivalent of kobe or wade either, rockets still came back and won though.
Barkley wad a great player, but he came up small in a lot of 4th quarters and everyone knew it.
They couldn't beat the Rockets because they had too many stiffs playing C. Dream was too mobile for them, but at the same time, Dream couldn't beat the Sonics at all.
i don't think it's necessarily being too old, but you have a finite window in which you're legit contenders. After that, due to management, changes in the team, lack of hunger, age, mileage, injuries, it's the next youngin's turn. There are some anomalies like Bird/Magic, I guess Lebron, but overall you get a good 4-5 years of legitimate contention. As for the Bad Boys, their window was closed once the Bulls beat them. They just refused to accept it.