Charles Barkley rips ‘idiots’ at ESPN, future home of ‘Inside the NBA,’ for saying ‘Lakers saved the NBA’

[ad_1]

Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley is introduced at the NBA All-Star Game Feb. 16 at Chase Center in San Francisco. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)

Charles Barkley isn’t a talking head on ESPN yet.

That will happen next year, when TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show — which stars Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith as analysts and Ernie Johnson as host — will be licensed out to air on ESPN starting with the 2025-26 season.

In the meantime, Barkley doesn’t seem to have a problem ripping the current ESPN talking heads, calling the group collectively “idiots” and “fools” and singling out one of them, Kendrick Perkins, by name.

Barkley did acknowledge, however, that “we going to become fools next year when we’ll be working on that network.”

Read more: Stephen A. Smith says LeBron James confronted him as ‘a daddy’ — not star player — over Bronny comments

Speaking on air Thursday, Barkley went on a lengthy rant about what he perceives to be partiality shown by ESPN toward the Lakers and Golden State Warriors, while teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder are having better overall seasons but don’t receive the same amount of coverage.

The Cavaliers (52-10) and Thunder (51-11) have the two best records in the NBA. The Lakers and Warriors have come on strong in recent weeks, with L.A. going 9-2 since adding recent acquisition Luka Doncic to the lineup and Golden State also going 9-2 since trading for Jimmy Butler.

Winners of their last eight games, the Lakers have bolted up to No. 2 in the Western Conference standings but still trail Oklahoma City by 10½ games. The Warriors are No. 6 in the conference, 16½ games behind the Thunder.

But the Lakers and Warriors have combined for 23 NBA titles overall and 10 since 2000, L.A most recently won it in 2020 and Golden State in 2022. The Cavaliers and Thunder have won two titles total (Cleveland in 2016 and the Thunder when they were the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979), which would seem to give the California teams a possible edge in national recognition and popularity.

Read more: Luka Doncic and LeBron lift Lakers to…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/charles-barkley-rips-idiots-espn-204407250.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2025-03-07 20:44:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.