Charles Barkley Takes Shots at ESPN, Expresses Anguish Over Potential “Lakers Are Contenders” Rant Tomorrow

Basketball enthusiasts were fortunate to witness two great matchups between powerhouse franchises on the opening night of the 2024-2025 season.

Charles Barkley was among the minority to be disappointed by the end of the second game of the night.

His reason is extremely petty and biased even though he denied such claims.

Barkley appeared to be in a great mood before and after the Boston Celtics-New York Knicks clash.

He was gleaming with joy after Jayson Tatum and co.

clinched a dominant 132-109 victory.

However, all this happiness went out of the window by the end of the Lakers-Timberwolves contest.

Sir Charles didnt laud JJ Redicks boys for defeating the 2024 Western Conference Finalists 110-103.

Instead, he appeared frustrated when predicting the upcoming ESPN headlines regarding the LA sides title chances.

The only thing bad, I gotta listen to those dudes on ESPN talking about how the Lakers are contenders tomorrow, and theyre gonna be the number nine seed, where they always are, Barkley sounded as a detractor.

The Hall of Famer denied being a Laker hater, but simply claimed that it irked him when not-so-good teams were hyped up to be better than they are.

However, Barkleys hatred for the Lakers, especially in the past few years, has been well-documented.

On more than one occasion, hes been harsh while assessing LeBron James and co.

One could argue that Barkley wasnt inaccurate in regarding the Purple & Gold merely as a play-in candidate during the previous season.

However, this campaigns way-too-early assessment of the Lakers is incorrect.

The team defeated Anthony Edwards and co.

despite LBJ being far away from his best..

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