Charles Barkley, the ever entertaining and unabashedly outspoken person that he is, is not a fan of the Houston Rockets.
Barkley reacted to the news that Curry would miss Game 3 on TNT, by saying “it’s the Rockets, the Warriors don’t need Curry.” Even when the Rockets had a seven point halftime lead over the Steph Curry-less Warriors in Game 3 of their first round series in Houston, Barkley guaranteed the Rockets would find a way to lose the game, calling out his hatred for “fake hustle.”
“Ain’t nothing worse than fake hustle. I guarantee the Rockets are going to lose this game, probably by 10 or more points.”
Barkley followed up his statement with what Dwight Howard would be doing by the beginning of next week.
“It’s just tonight and Sunday (for the Rockets) and Superman (Dwight Howard) is going to Cancun.”
As we all know now, James Harden hit a stepback jump shot with just over 2 seconds remaining to give the Rockets a 97-96 win in Game 2, after coming tantalizingly close to fulfilling Chuck’s prophecy.
Which didn’t make many of the Rockets players too happy apparently, which could also prove Chuck’s Cancun theory for Howard…
I can't stop watching the #Rockets bench look mostly devastated after James Harden hit the game-winner last night ?? https://t.co/Agp7p3i0tG
— Mike Welch (@RealMikeWelch) April 22, 2016
As you might expect, Rockets brass weren’t too pleased with Barkley’s admonishment of their team and Rockets CEO threw a jab right back at the Chuckster, referring to Barkley’s final four seasons in the NBA as a Houston Rocket.
@dfbarron Charles would know, his entire rockets career was fake hustle
— Tad Brown (@tadbbrown) April 22, 2016
That was a pretty deep burn, Touche Tad Brown, touche. In all fairness though Barkley was still pretty productive his first two seasons in Houston and helped the Rockets reach the conference finals. Barkley is an anti fake hustle guy by nature as his hustle is what helped make him a legend.
Still a fun and well placed retort though.
It will be interesting to see how Barkley responds and how the Warriors will respond in Game 4 Sunday.
