Charles Barkley’s Bold NBA Playoff Prediction Involving The Blazers Is About As Absurd As It Gets

Charles Barkley’s always one of the most outspoken people in sports; so he’ll rarely hold back when he’s got an opinion or story. Sometimes that causes a little bit of a rift with people — as we’ve seen in the past with the beef he apparently has with Draymond Green — and, sometimes, it makes Sir Charles seem like he doesn’t know a damn thing about basketball.

Barkley’s latest comments kind of fall under the latter category, because, while talking with his fellow colleagues on TNT’s Inside the NBA Thursday night, the Basketball Hall of Famer went about as bold (and absurd) as possible with a potential NBA Playoffs prediction: The current 9th-seeded Portland Trail Blazers will upset the No. 1-seeded Los Angeles Lakers should the two meet in the postseason. Uh, what?

It’s almost as if you’re ready for Charles Barkley to drop a, “Nah, I’m just playing, nobody’s beating the Lakers this year” — except he doesn’t do it. In fact, Barkley’s love affair with the Blazers isn’t something new, as he’s been on the Portland bandwagon for the past few years, and, more recently, even described the reasons why he thinks the team could make some noise should they reach the NBA Playoffs this year.

Per MSN:

“The one team in the Western Conference, if they get Nurkic back and Zach Collins, nobody’s going to want to see the Portland Trail Blazers. They got, arguably — other than Klay and Steph — the best backcourt in the NBA. Whiteside’s been playing pretty good all year. But if they get Nurkic and Zach Collins back, nobody’s going to want to see the Portland Trail Blazers.”

The Lakers have two MVP candidates — LeBron James and Anthony Davis — boast the second-best record in the NBA, and are one of three teams (joining the L.A. Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks) as the definitive favorites to reach the NBA Finals this year. So, yeah, Barkley’s prediction seems like it’s nothing more than a pipe dream. Maybe the Chuckster was just enjoying some of that good weed inside the NBA bubble that’s apparently available?

Given the fact the Lakers are actual contenders and the Blazers are, well, currently not even a playoff team, people on Twitter had all sorts of reactions to Barkley’s proclamation. Take a look below at what they were saying.

https://twitter.com/samizaynpiedKO/status/1283930893615271937?s=20

https://twitter.com/Zen49343342/status/1283931654260756481?s=20

https://twitter.com/Joshxlakeshow/status/1283930810261831680?s=20

Meanwhile, the Blazers currently sit in the 9th seed and 3.5 games behind the 8th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, and have to make up serious ground just to make the NBA Playoffs. With stars like Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, a slimmed down Carmelo Anthony and a handful of solid role players, Portland can’t be counted out from reaching the postseason over Memphis, but for Charles Barkley to suggest they’d pull an upset by beating the Lakers is about as absurd as any of us thinking we’re going to marry a supermodel one day. Sorry, it just isn’t happening.

(H/T Blazers Edge)