Charles Barkley, after nearly a quarter of a century on TNT, is still making use of the candor that made him a popular interview during his playing career.
Case in point: Sunday evening, when he sharply criticized the NBA for starting Game 1 of the Timberwolves-Nuggets first-round playoff series at 10:30 ET—or 8:30 local time in Colorado.
“I have a problem with that night game starting at 10:30,” Barkley said when presented with TNT’s schedule for the day. “I do have a problem with that.”
"It's not gonna be starting at 10:30 in Denver," studio host Ernie Johnson offered.
“That’s not the point. Here’s the point,” Barkley said. “To have that last game at 10:30 Eastern, that’s just wrong. I don’t care what anyone says … they should not be starting that game at 8:30 Denver time.”
Charles Barkley is not a fan of the 8:30 PM local start time for T'Wolves-Nuggets.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 16, 2023
"We got to have some respect for the fans at some point. It ain't fair for the people in Denver to be playing at 8:30 at night and they got to go to school tomorrow." pic.twitter.com/Bbs2EjmWXs
Teased by his Inside the NBA colleagues, Barkley further elaborated.
“We got to have some respect for the fans at some point,” he said. “It ain’t fair for the people in Denver to be playing at 8:30 at night and they got to go to school tomorrow.”
Denver went 53–29 this season, tied for the eighth-best record in franchise history, and secured home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference postseason.
