Charles Barkley has made his allegiance in the Western Conference Finals crystal clear, as the Inside the NBA analyst has picked the Mavs to beat the Warriors and spent most of his time in San Francisco getting into it with fans on and off of the TNT set.
As the series shifted to Dallas for Game 3 on Sunday, Barkley was in a far more friendly environment and arrived in style to the TNT set outside American Airlines Center, riding a horse while Shaq and Kenny heckled him the entire time.
Chuck really pulled up to Dallas on a horse 🤣 #NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/s5Olo0Whbn
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 23, 2022
The dismount really was the best part of all of it, as Kenny and Shaq rooted their hardest for him to fall off the horse, with Kenny correctly pointing out there was no way he was going to be able to get that right leg up and over the horse without some serious difficulty. To Chuck’s credit, he managed to get off of the horse without crashing to the ground, a considerable win given he was in front of thousands of people and being watched on national television.
I do love the defiance as he insisted he could really ride a horse while he hung onto the pommel for dear life while the two horse trainers led the horse through the sea of people. The TNT crew was really feeling the Texas spirit on Sunday night, as Shaq and Kenny then greeted Chuck once he finally got up to the stage with a little do-si-do.
.@SHAQ & @TheJetOnTNT 😂 pic.twitter.com/ft5EbeqF9C
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 23, 2022
We’ll see if the mood is as celebratory after Game 3 as the Mavs try to make this a series and get on the board for the first time.