After the Golden State Warriors demolished the Houston Rockets during the first two games of their first-round series–as expected–Charles Barkley, the outspoken member of TNT’s Inside the NBA talk show, decided to quite literally scribble out the fifth, sixth and seventh game of the series on the Rockets/Warriors schedule, changing the “if necessary” modifier to “not necessary.”
This, naturally, didn’t sit well with Rockets players and brass, and after James Harden‘s turnaround jumper with 2.5 seconds left gave Houston a Game 3 victory, members of the Rockets front office hopped on Twitter and began handing out efficient clapbacks, including GM Daryl Morey, who commented on the referee’s missed call on Draymond Green, who appeared to use a wrestling move to remove Rockets forward Michael Beasley from the final play of the game.
Draymond with the takedown https://t.co/tBjXAa1FHi https://t.co/mocEJSf8Mz
— SI NBA (@si_nba) April 22, 2016
Rockets CEO Tad Brown went a…tad…further, and responded to Barkley’s comments about Houston’s style of play, which the Inside the NBA host referred to as “fake hustle.” Brown’s response? Barkley’s whole Rockets career was “fake hustle.” Ouch.
@dfbarron Charles would know, his entire rockets career was fake hustle — Tad Brown (@tadbbrown) April 22, 2016
Of course, Houston’s victory yesterday came while Stephen Curry was out nursing an ankle injury. There’s no word on whether or not Curry will be ready to go by Game 4, which is Sunday in Houston, but what a game that will be.
