The Los Angeles Lakers are having a very bad season, but because they are the Lakers and have LeBron James, they continue to find themselves on national TV nearly every other game.
On Thursday, they were once again on TNT’s airwaves for their matchup with the Clippers in what is currently a possible play-in preview between two teams missing stars. It is certainly not the marquee showdown that Turner was hoping to have when they nabbed it on the schedule release, and at halftime, Charles Barkley continued his months-long campaign to get the Lakers off of national TV.
Barkley has now decided that he will protest the Lakers being on TNT by simply refusing to say the name of their team, instead calling them “the team from Southern California,” “geezers,” and “losers.” When asked what the Lakers can do to change his mind, Chuck told Ernie Johnson that there’s nothing they can do until they win a playoff game.
Chuck refuses to mention the word "Lakers" for the rest of the season
pic.twitter.com/pNkyNd91cK
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 4, 2022
It’s vintage Chuck, who also takes aim at his own network and ESPN for being “nitwits” and talking about the Lakers non-stop despite the fact that they aren’t relevant in the title picture. We’ll see how long Chuck can keep this bit up, but the Lakers don’t have another Thursday TNT game until March 31 when they play the Jazz, so he might just have a shot.
Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/charles-barkley-refuses-say-lakers-playoff-game-video/