"Knew you would reach for it": Kenny Smith tricks Charles Barkley into beating him in 'board race' on NBA on TNT
The NBA is certainly back and the TNT crew as well with Kenny Smith pulling off all the stops to beat Charles Barkley in a board race. The former Houston Rockets guard was seen on the top cam to have planted a box near Barkley's chair that would distract him from getting a head start.
The 'board race' has been a running gag of "Inside the NBA" where Kenny Smith runs to the board at the back of the set while Charles Barkley or Shaquille O'Neal tries to beat him in a running game.
Smith's competitive nature truly showed as he pulled out a tactic that would keep him ahead of the race. The two-time NBA champion placed a box that would block the running start of Barkley and it actually worked as seen on the top camera of the set.
"I knew you had peripheral vision, I knew you would reach for it and then I take off. There you go! You wanted to beat me on Day 1? Never!" said Smith once he reached the board with a stunned Barkley looking on.
Charles Barkley does not see James Harden getting accepted by Philadelphia fans anymore
As the season started, James Harden's trade request has not been granted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Having played for the franchise for eight seasons, Charles Barkley knows that this won't sit well with the fans that Harden even skipped practice for 10 days:
"James Harden can't come back to Philly. The fans ain't going to have him. He can't treat the city of Philadelphia like that. They can't forgive and forget. I said the same thing with Ben Simmons when they were trying like 'We want Ben Simmons back.' They are not going to take him back."
More than Harden asking for a trade, Barkley sees that this is also on Sixers GM Daryl Morey for being ambitious to overvalue the disgruntled player on the trade market:
"James Harden has one year left on his deal. The notion that [Morey is] going to get a bucket load of picks and players, they have a guy who is going on a team for one year, he is not going to get a good deal. He got to make the best deal possible."
The Philadelphia 76ers have yet to field James Harden this season as he was asked to stay by the team's coaching staff to do more conditioning work before rejoining the team.