Charles Barkley thinks the NBA is doing fans a disservice with their playoff scheduling, at least for Sunday’s slate of games.
Barkley objected specifically to the scheduled tip-off of Game 1 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. EST. He called the time inconsiderate to fans, especially on a day when the NBA was not competing with other major sports for national viewership.
“I have a problem with that game starting at 10:30,” Barkley said. “We have the whole day to ourselves. We should have played at 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock. To have that last game at 10:30 Eastern, that’s just wrong.
“Listen, we got to have some respect for the fans at some point. It ain’t fair for the people in Denver to be playing at 8:30 at night and they got to go to school tomorrow, so stop it.”
Shaquille O’Neal disagreed with Barkley, dismissing his complaints as mere whining. A lot of people are probably on Barkley's side here, though. The larger issue might be that the NBA does not want a West Coast playoff team to start at 10 a.m. PST. Even making Game 1 between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks the first contest of the day would still make for a noon start time in Milwaukee.
Barkley is not always a man of the people, but he is in this particular case. He probably has a point, too.
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