Charles Barkley butchers another NBA name, calls Jayson Tatum "Jayson Taylor," leaves ‘Inside the NBA’ crew in splits
NBA legend-turned-TNT analyst Charles Barkley is known to struggle with pronouncing players’ names from time to time.
Usually, it is lesser-known role players whose names Barkley has a hard time with. However, on Tuesday night, he struggled to say the name of one of the NBA's premier stars.
While discussing his top MVP candidates in the league, Barkley slipped up and called Boston Celtics superstar forward Jayson Tatum “Jayson Taylor.”
“The MVP of the league right now — no disrespect to Luka (Doncic), no disrespect to AD (Anthony Davis) — that boy in Boston right now, he’s kicking ass and taking names. His name is Jayson Taylor,” Barkley said before correcting himself.
Chuck: “That boy in Boston right now, he’s kicking ass and taking names. His name is Jayson Taylor.”
Kenny: “Jayson Tatum?” 🤣 https://t.co/ECjVJcMSYU
The rest of the Inside the NBA crew immediately broke out into a fit of laughter and disbelief.
“That was an almost perfect delivery, up until this,” co-host Ernie Johnson Jr. joked.
The fact that Barkley was talking about his own MVP pick just made the slip-up that much funnier.
Jayson Tatum is averaging 30.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game on 48.0% shooting. He has also led the Boston Celtics to a league-best 20-5 record. So at this point, there’s not much more Tatum can do to make Charles Barkley remember his name.
Charles Barkley isn’t impressed with LA Lakers
Charles Barkley also made headlines during Tuesday night’s TNT broadcast for his opinion on another of the NBA’s premier players and franchises.
The LA Lakers had won eight of their last 10 games to improve to 10-12 before their Tuesday night loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They did so largely thanks to All-Star forward Anthony Davis, who has been playing at a superstar level lately.
However, Barkley explained why the Lakers, who fell to 10-13 and 13th in the Western Conference, still aren’t that impressive.
“Anthony Davis is playing great. I've told you for the last three years. He's the guy who's gonna take the Lakers where they want to,” Barkley said.
“But where exactly placed are the Lakers right now? 13th! Hey, if the playoffs started today, they wouldn’t even be in the Play-In Game.”
“Hey, if the playoffs started today, they wouldn’t even be in the Play-In Game”
Chuck is still hesitant to buy in on the Lakers 😅 https://t.co/ElIJZkesOi
It may be harsh, but Barkley's statement holds credibility at the moment. Davis ended up having to leave the Lakers’ game versus Cleveland early due to flu-like symptoms. The team clearly missed AD and fell to a 116-102 loss.
However, if Davis can return soon, stay healthy and continue playing at an MVP level, LA should have a decent chance of getting into the playoff picture.
For more on Barkley's commentary on the LA Lakers, click here.
Also read: NBA analyst on Anthony Davis being the new torch bearer for LA Lakers: "Anthony Davis is accepting that he has to be Batman"