Over the years, Inside the NBA has become one of the most beloved shows across sports. The cast of Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson has been the source for plenty of laughs for over 20 years. Their light-hearted nature has ignited a unique life within sports media.
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Despite their free-flowing nature, the show’s main purpose is to cover basketball. Considering the majority of their cast were former players, they’re not afraid to voice their opinions. Barkley is by far the most unapologetic in that regard.
The Hall-of-Fame forward has often called out players like Kevin Durant, LeBron James and other greats of the game. It’s his most defining trait as an analyst. Back in 2006, he had even poked Kobe Bryant,leading to an interesting text exchange. Thankfully, Kenny Smith has all the details.
“Chuck has a story about Kobe,” Smith said in an interview with Big Boy. “At that time, [the public] was saying he was shooting too much in the playoffs. So Kobe was like, ‘Alright, I’m shooting too much? I’m not shooting.’ He didn’t verbally say it, but he didn’t take a shot for the whole second half.”
Smith was referring to the Game 7 of the 20026 first-round series between the Lakers and Phoenix Suns. Bryant had gone into halftime with an impressive 23 points.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles was still down by 15 points. Smith hyperbolized the story slightly since Kobe did shoot in the second half, but it was just three shots. He would go on to miss all of them.
Of course, it appeared as if Bryant had quit on his team. Barkley, not a fan of that type of behavior, called Kobe out on national television. Kobe responded soon enough.
“[Kobe] is texting Charles and just cussing him out,” Smith proclaimed. “Charles was trying to call him and [Bryant] wouldn’t answer, but he kept texting.”
His tirade eventually flamed out, but without a solution. Time would pass until the two would come face-to-face. However, instead of confronting Barkley once and for all, Bryant took a different approach.
“Finally, they caught up and [Kobe]’s like, ‘You’re right, I did do that. But I bet you the next game, I can get a certain amount of points,'” Smith said.
Barkley didn’t hesitate to accept that bet. Unfortunately for Barkley, Bryant tapped into his inner Michael Jordan to win the bet. Well, to be fair, Barkley should not pushed his luck here.
