Charles Barkley predicted the Los Angeles Lakers would lose and mocked a fan in a LeBron jersey during the broadcast, but the Lakers proved him wrong by beating the Denver Nuggets in overtime.
The Los Angeles Lakers survived a 127-125 overtime drama on Saturday, defeating the Denver Nuggets. For some famous NBA analysts and legends, however, the victory was not exactly welcome news.
Charles Barkley, a Hall of Famer and longtime TV analyst, was certainly one of them.
"My worst nightmare is the Lakers winning tonight, and I have to listen to all the crap on Monday on the talk shows that the Lakers are contenders," Barkley said before the game.
He also added that he doesn't believe home-court advantage would suddenly turn the Lakers into real title contenders.
"The Lakers are going to lose this game tonight, guaranteed! This little pretty girl (points to the fan) wearing a Bron jersey is going to be crying in 2 hours," Barkley stated during the broadcast of the Inside The NBA show.
The Lakers ended up winning the game, meaning Barkley may now have to face his personal nightmare.
"Even though the Lakers won the game, they had a lot of help," Chuck said after the game. "Like everything had to go perfectly. ... I'm not going to complain about this game, it was a great win for the Lakers."
Meanwhile, his colleague and fellow Hall of Famer, Shaquille O'Neal, was also critical of the Lakers despite their victory over Denver.
According to Shaq, relying on last-second heroics isn't enough for a true contender. He was referring to Austin Reaves making a clutch play in the final possession of regulation and then Luka Doncic hitting the game-winning shot in overtime.
Doncic, however, was positive about the result.
"It's very big [win], we have to approach every game the same way," Luka said post-game. "We're fighting with Denver in the standings. They're a hell of a team, so I think that was a very big win for us."
With the victory, the Lakers improved to 42-25, extended their winning streak to five games, and moved up to third place in the Western Conference standings.
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