“Charles Barkley, you said 2 words!”: When Ernie Johnson and Chris Webber clowned NBA legend for saying ‘Steve Nash and Chris Paul, must-see TV!’

We take a look back at a classic Charles Barkley moment from late-noughties Inside the NBA, when Chris Webber was a feature on the show.

Many NBA fans are quite distressed by the state of the coverage of the league these days. While TNT has an excellent halftime show, they place Marv Albert, Reggie Miller and Grant Hill in their booth too often for our liking.

On the other hand, ESPN/ABC suffer from the opposite problem. They have a comparatively better in-game broadcasting crew (carried by Mike Breen), but their halftime ‘show’ is nothing but a commercial break from the incessant commercials they run.

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NBA coverage was a lot better in the Sportscenter days. TNT had to pick their act up, and that they did by putting Charles Barkley on their show. Chuck might say some politically incorrect stuff every once in a while, but he’s the life and soul of their show otherwise.

We take a look back at a classic Chuck moment from the 2009-10 NBA season.

Charles Barkley says 8 words after promising to wrap up in 2

The clip below is regarding studio coverage for a Hornets vs Suns game. It pitted Chris Paul against Steve Nash, so TNT wanted to get a promo video done. In Ernie’s words:

“Every now and then we have to tape some promos, you know we did the Ron Artest thing. We have the Lakers coming up next week and the week after that. And so, we put these little promos on tape. To try and get you people to try and watch the game.”

“And they need to be punchy and concise and really, you know, deliver something to get you to watch the game. Here’s an example of what happened tonight, and why they go so smoothly.”

The video then cuts to some older pre-game footage of Chuck promoting a match broadcast on TV. Our dear talking head promised to deliver us some nice punchlines, but it seems he hardly understood that task. Here’s exactly what Charles Barkley said at the time:

“I got 2 words for you: ‘Steve Nash and Chris Paul, must-see TV.'”

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The way that Chuck takes the mickey out of himself in this clip is pure comedic gold. Thankfully for us, TNT has held onto him for over 20 years now. But Barkley promises to retire when he hits 60, and that’s going to be a sad day for sportscasting.