Charles Barkley wasn’t in the Christmas spirit on Thursday morning.
The “Inside The NBA” Grinch threw shade at the Warriors while welcoming Draymond Green to ABC’s telecast before the New York Knicks’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“We’re going to have you back here once the playoffs start,” Barkley told Green, signifying that he believes the Warriors will miss the first round of the NBA playoffs.
“Shaq, we’ll bring our rings and share them with Chuck,” Green said in response to Barkley.
Barkley is the most well-known Warriors detractor, and even after they won four NBA titles in the last 11 seasons — four more than he ever won — he still takes at them whenever he can.
But Green, a prolific trash-talker, has found a way to take shots at Barkley.
Green and Shaquille O’Neal, Barkley’s “Inside The NBA” co-host, have been doing a “Four Rings Handshake” ever since the Warriors won the 2022 NBA championship, a not-so-subtle jab at Barkley.
“It was always to pick on Charles … it’s so fun picking on Charles,” Green told former co-host Baron Davis on “The Draymond Green Show” in May. “And Chuck’s such a good sport about everything and funny as hell.”
Entering Thursday’s Christmas Day clash with the Dallas Mavericks, the Warriors hold the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed, which would mean they would have to escape the NBA play-in tournament to secure a playoff spot.
Green and the Warriors made it out of the play-in tournament last season and then upset the No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets before falling to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round after Steph Curry sustained a hamstring injury in Game 1 of that series.
If the Warriors can replicate that success this season, Green won’t join Barkley until at least May.
But if Green has it his way, in a dream scenario, he never joins Barkley in the studio this spring as he helps lead the Warriors on a magical run to a fifth NBA title.
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