Charles Barkley sends Pelicans on an early vacation in epic Inside the NBA rant
By Matt Alquiza
![Former Auburn basketball player Charles Barkley jokes with announcers Jay Williams, left, and Roxy Former Auburn basketball player Charles Barkley jokes with announcers Jay Williams, left, and Roxy](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_2299,h_1293,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/73/01hwjxfnnerbwk4txzsf.jpg)
Shoutout to the Inside the NBA crew.
Sure, they may say some ridiculous things about basketball. Their analysis is mostly shallow. They're not perfect.
But man, they are hilarious.
After Saturday afternoon's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that dropped the Pelicans down 3-0 in their first round series, the Inside the NBA panel questioned New Orleans' effort levels.
It's hard to blame them. In the single most important game of their season, the Pelicans came out flat. Frankly, they looked unprepared as well. The first quarter started similarly to the first two games of the series. Cagey, defensive-minded, and slow-paced. The Pels held their own for most of the quarter, but a late Thunder run bled into the second quarter and it was all downhill from there.
CJ McCollum missed his first seven three-point attempts. Brandon Ingram was stuck in the Dorture Chamber. Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones continuously tried to summit Mount Holmgren and continuously were shut down. New Orleans had nothing on the offensive end.
Albert Einstein famously said '"nsanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," and that has been New Orleans through three games of the NBA playoffs. No adjustment has worked, and the Pelicans keep banging their head against the wall trying to make an impact against the Thunder to no avail.
Charles Barkley has had enough of it.
Chuck’s had it with the Pelicans 💀 pic.twitter.com/hko6mQY8kN
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 27, 2024
Inside the NBA is good for a viral clip every couple of weeks, and this stroke of comedic genius by Charles Barkley was teed up perfectly by Shaquille O'Neal to hit algorithms everywhere. Unfortunately, Barkley's rant was at the Pelicans expense, and even more unfortunately, there is some truth to his words about the Pelicans playoff performance thus far.