October 10, 2024

Fans pelt Charles Barkley with t-shirts after Warriors clinch Finals berth

Barkley turns and steps back toward the desk before faking another mic throw and pointing at the crowd.

The Round Mound of Rebound wasn’t having it after Thursday night’s Game 5 of the Wester Conference Finals.

During TNT’s “Inside the NBA” post-game coverage outside the Chase Center in San Francisco following the Golden State Warriors 120-110 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks, people in the crowd began throwing t-shirts and other detritus at analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.

Video of the incident begins with a pan over the crowd, including one holding a sign reading “Chuck You Suck,” before a shot of Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson, shows a desk with multiple yellow shirts piled near Barkley.

“Hey,” Johnson says to the crowd.

“Yo, they throwing stuff up here,” Smith says as another shirt sails onto the desk.

Barkley spins in his chair and rushes to the fence separating the broadcast crew from the crowd and winds up to throw his microphone before pulling back.

“Hey, Chuck,” Johnson says. “Chuck, sit down, man.”

Barkley turns and steps back toward the desk before faking another mic throw and pointing at the crowd.

Johnson and Smith both implore Barkley to sit back down as O’Neal smiles to someone off camera and turns back to see what is happening.

After one last fake-out with his microphone, Barkley sits back down.

“We will be back,” Johnson says.

The likely cause for the Golden State faithful’s ire against him? Barkley picked the Mavericks to win the series nearly two weeks ago.

Luckily, Barkley kept his cool and an ugly scene didn’t get any uglier. Anything less would be uncivilized.