If there’s one person you can depend on for their honest opinion in this world and in this lifetime it’s Charles Barkley. When discussing how the NBA playoffs have been officiated—specifically the flagrant foul calls—the NBA on TNT crew got on the topic of Dillon Brooks’s foul on Gary Payton II in Game 2 Tuesday between the Grizzlies and Warriors.
Barkley let it be known that he thinks it was called correctly but doesn’t believe it was intentional. In order to get his point across that he doesn’t think it was a big deal, he decided to use an example from his own personal life—specifically, his love life.
“That was a flagrant-2 but the notion that he tried to hurt that kid, I’m not gonna live with that,” Barkley said. “’This is the code,’ give me a break man … Yo man, I’ve been kissed harder than that!”
The rest of the TNT crew found the comparison hilarious, as usual. But it’s unlikely that Barkley’s smooch left him with a fractured elbow. During Game 2, Payton was going for a wide open layup before he was hit from behind on the head by Brooks. He came crashing down onto the hardwood and braced himself with his left arm. It was later diagnosed as a fractured elbow but he still could return in the postseason.
Brooks was suspended for Game 3 of the series in which the Warriors won, 142–112.
