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Barkley Returns to Miami For NBA Finals on NBA TV

May 30, 2011 2:30 PM 4 comments

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Just over a week after receiving a chilly reception prior to Bulls/Heat Game 3, TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley will return to Miami for coverage of the NBA Finals.

Along with Kenny Smith and Rick Kamla, Barkley will be onsite from Miami for NBA TV’s pre-and-postgame coverage of Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals Tuesday and Thursday.

This will be the third straight year Barkley and Smith have contributed to NBA TV’s coverage of the NBA Finals.

However, in the previous two years, Barkley and Smith were present for Games 3, 4 and 5.

This year, Chris Webber and the reportedly outgoing Kevin McHale will cover Games 3 and 4 from Dallas, and, if necessary, Games 5-7.

Barkley was roundly booed during TNT’s pre and postgame coverage of Bulls/Heat Game 3 May 22, which took place outside American Airlines Arena amongst the fans. TNT moved its studio coverage indoors for Game 4.

Barkley has been routinely critical of the Heat since the team acquired LeBron James and Chris Bosh last summer.

(Information from Turner Sports)

  • JakeFrankie

    Paulsen you haven’t give a NBA Finals ratings prediction for game 1 yet? How do you think it will fare will love to hear you take since I respect your opinion :)

    NBAhoops2011 where every you are  - Miami in 5 :)

    • Paulsen

      I think Game 1 has a good chance of surpassing last year’s 8.6 for Celtics/Lakers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the numbers were flat or even down.

      • JakeFrankie

        I’m kinda shocked your saying that, Looking at Miami Heat’s numbers all season. It leans for us to believe this series will do fantastic. Miami has drawn will every NBA team from the Lakers to the Suns on tv.

        I think it will do in the 9.0′s or 10.0′s in game 1, Michael Wilbon said on ESPN he thinks this could be the most watched this since Rockets-Magic in 1995 (of course not counting the Bulls 2nd 3peat numbers).

    • Nbahoops2011

      Ha! I’m here.

      Sorry to disappoint you, jake, but I’m going with the Mavs in 7..but I assure you it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anti-Heat, anti-LeBron bias since LBJ is one of my fav players.

      I just don’t want to hear the general columnists and general sports fans whining about the way the Heat built this team…and trust me, if I’ve learnt anything from the sports media and sports fans these past few months, it’s that they’ll find every possible excuse in case the Heat end up winning the title….no credit given…there’d be so much negative talk that I’d probably be forced to avoid the internet for at least a month or so. I can already see writers talking about how wrong it feels winning in this way and how bad it is for the game.

      If the Mavs win, I’d believe fans and writers will be more quiet and will act as if  everything is well in the world, so I’d rather see this option over the world-is-ending reactions if the Heat win it all.

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