Charles Barkley unloads on ESPN over Game 1 NBA Finals coverage
November 23, 2018; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Turner Sports sportscaster Charles Barkley before The Match: Tiger vs Phil golf match at Shadow Creek Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Charles Barkley was in disbelief over what he saw with ESPN’s coverage leading up to Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
During a Friday appearance on Outkick’s “Don’t @ Me” with Dan Dakich, Barkley unloaded on ESPN for spending a significant portion of their Game 1 pregame coverage discussing a topic that had nothing to do with the Boston Celtics or Dallas Mavericks, who are playing in the NBA Finals. Barkley said he was furious when ESPN dedicated roughly an hour of TV time to the report linking Dan Hurley to the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I was so pissed. With Game 1 of the (NBA) Finals and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals coming on, for them to spend the first hour talking about ‘what if Danny Hurley goes to the Lakers?’ … I was so pissed yesterday. I had to turn my TV off, I’m not gonna lie,” Barkley said.
“This is how stupid they are. Y’all got the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Finals and y’all are talking about a team that’s irrelevant. Whoever’s doing their programming has got to be the stupidest most bonehead people in the world. If (Hurley) goes, we’ll talk about it. But to just go on there and blow air for an hour, and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, we got Game 1 of the Finals coming up tonight.’ I was like, who in the hell is running their programming over there?”
You can hear Barkley’s full rant:
Charles Barkley turned off ESPN because of their coverage pic.twitter.com/iosxFy7hCT
— OutKick (@Outkick) June 7, 2024
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped the bombshell report on Thursday morning that the Lakers are pushing to hire Hurley away from UConn. With the news coming from their own reporter, it is hardly a surprise that ESPN spent so much time talking about it, even with the Finals set to begin.
Barkley might end up working at ESPN if TNT loses its NBA rights, though the Hall of Famer says he would only do that under one condition.