The NBA has been on a marketing spree to promote their latest brainchild – the ‘In-Season Tournament’, which was incorporated to increase the excitement of the 82-game-long regular season. In another effort to improve the tournament’s viewership, the league did a crossover between ESPN’s ‘NBA Countdown’ and TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ for the semi-finals. A home run idea from the league has already had some amazing moments, and we can anticipate more to come.
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The ESPN-TNT crew is covering the semi-final games, the Indiana Pacers vs the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans vs the Los Angeles Lakers. While discussing the first semis between the Bucks and the Pacers, Charles Barkley dropped his first dig while having a conversation with Stephen A. Smith. Unfortunately, James Harden was caught in the crossfire. Here is what he said, as seen in the X [Formerly Twitter] post by NBA on TNT.
“I was talking to Woj and Woj said Haliburton is playing so good, James Harden wanted to be traded to Indiana!”
With Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton leading his team to the Finals of the In-Season Tournament, he has been receiving a much-deserved appreciation for his game. Haliburton seems to have turned a corner to start the season and is playing at an MVP level. Meanwhile, Harden has been demanding trades to join superstars from one team to another. Barkley’s comment was an attempt to make fun of Harden’s trade requests while giving Haliburton his flowers.
After spending nine seasons with the Houston Rockets, Harden demanded a trade to the Brooklyn Nets to join Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2020-2021. In just two seasons with the Nets, he requested to be traded to the Philadelphia Sixers to join Joel Embiid in 2022. Having played only one and a half seasons with the Sixers, the guard was looking to move again. Currently, he is teamed up with Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Russell Westbrook for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Charles Barkley appreciated Haliburton with Harden’s dig
Charles Barkley’s comments were not only about roasting James Harden but also about giving a young Tyrese Haliburton his flowers. The Indiana Pacers point guard has been averaging career-high numbers with 26.9 points per game, 12.1 assists per game, and a field goal percentage of 52.5%. In short, the 12th pick of the 2020 NBA draft has been flat-out balling.
While playing for a team in rebuild mode, he has managed to take them to the finals of the In-Season Tournament. In doing so, the Indiana team has overcome heavyweights such as the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks. During the semi-final game with the Bucks, Haliburton scored 27 points and had a whopping 15 assists to go with 11-19 shooting. The young player outplayed Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard to give his team a chance to be the first-ever winners of the In-Season Tournament.
