Charles Barkley thinks the NBA is doing fans a disservice with their playoff scheduling, at least for Sunday’s games.
Barkley objected to Sunday’s playoff game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets starting at 10:30 p.m. ET. He said on TNT’s pregame show that it was inconsiderate to fans, especially on a day when the NBA was not competing with other major sports for national viewership.
"I have a problem with that game starting at 10:30pm… [That's] just wrong. I don't care what anybody says… We got to have some respect for the fans at some point."
Charles Barkley isn't a fan of the Timberwolves-Nuggets game starting very late 😅pic.twitter.com/TQeNCS1mRX
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 16, 2023
“I have a problem with that game starting at 10:30,” Barkley said. “We have the whole day to ourselves. We should have played at 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock. To have that last game at 10:30 Eastern, that’s just wrong.
“Listen, 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, so stop it.”
Shaquille O’Neal disagreed with Barkley, dismissing his complaints as whining. However, a lot of people would be with Barkley here. The big issue is that the NBA does not want a game featuring a West Coast playoff team to start at 10 a.m. Pacific, and even making the Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks game the first game of the day would still make for a noon start time in Milwaukee.
Barkley is not always a man of the people, but he is here. He probably has a point, too.
