
Sign up for our Layup Lines newsletter, hitting your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The best takes and the sharpest bets on all the hoops storylines you need to know. Even still, what another great highlight from the best analyst panel in the business.
There’s no way this is Barkley’s first time cursing ever, right? Maybe on live television sure, but there’s no way. The first time Charles Barkley has ever cursed, per Charles Barkley /LwDOBn8GGA took offense to the proceedings.īarkley then told the room that this was the first time he had ever cursed, eliciting more laughter from the panel.
#Charles barkley tnt crack#
This time, it was Barkley to get the shenanigans underway after he accidentally cursed live on television, causing Shaq and the rest of the crew to crack up while Ernie Johnson Jr. On Thursday, the good old NBA on TNT folks - fresh off of running Shaquille O’Neal into Christmas trees - had yet another hilarious segment where things went off the rails quickly. At different points during Inside The NBA, he called the Lakers’ veterans “cooked”, singling out Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and the recently departed DeAndre Jordan by name (again, he’s not wrong!), and jokingly asked his co-hosts whether the 17-year-old Bronny James would start or come off the bench if he joined this Lakers roster right now.It took until January 2023 for Charles Barkley to utter one curse word… according to the man himself that is anyway. That said, Barkley didn’t exactly live up to his own demands on Thursday night. My guess is that Barkley knows this, but is fed up with having to cover such a dismal team so constantly.
#Charles barkley tnt tv#
It’s the same logic behind the Dallas Cowboys getting constant primetime coverage on NFL Sundays despite winning two playoff games in the past quarter-century, and why the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox almost always get the Fox Sports and ESPN Saturday and Sunday national TV slots when they play each other, no matter how good each team is during that season. The NBA and its media partners would be foolish not to capitalize on that brand to drive up overall viewership. The Lakers have either the biggest or second-biggest fanbase in the NBA by pretty much every metric that can track such things, from merchandise sales, to TV ratings, to social media engagement. He knows that the Lakers will always get special treatment among NBA coverage because there is no other brand like it in the league that will draw as many eyeballs, especially when the off-court drama turns into a full-blown soap opera - like it has this year, and way too many other years in the recent past. This team has not played good basketball all year long aside from LeBron James continuing to impose his ageless will whenever he decides to do so.īarkley’s a smart guy. There’s a reason I used the word “unwatchable” to describe them above. After all, I wrote after that Thursday disaster that there is little reason to care about these Lakers right now if they don’t seem to care themselves.

“Between the nitwits at TNT and the nitwits at ESPN, we talk about these losers more than any people in the world.”īarkley initially referred to the Lakers as “that team from Southern California” and, when pressed by Ernie Johnson, said he would not refer to the Lakers by their actual name until they win a playoff game.Ĭhuck's had it with "the team from Southern California" /hy9yvIFjNw- NBA on TNT March 4, 2022īarkley’s frustration is understandable.

During a conference call on Tuesday announcing TNT's broadcast schedule for All-Star weekend, the. “I’m not talking about these damn losers,” Barkley said. (Getty Images) Charles Barkley won't be a member of the 'NBA on TNT' panel much longer. Charles Barkley led off the Inside The NBA halftime show with a declaration of independence from Lakers coverage - which included some shots at the NBA’s main media partners including, yes, Barkley’s own employer. The 2021-22 Lakers have fluctuated between mediocre and (especially lately) downright unwatchable, which is especially disastrous when a team literally has the most nationally televised games of any organization in the league.įor the most popular television analyst in the NBA, Thursday night’s drubbing at the hands of the Clippers on TNT was the last straw. They’re barely a playoff contender this year, but that’s a far cry from the championship expectations they entered the season with. The Los Angeles Lakers are the premier brand in the NBA, even when they’re not a playoff contender.
