If you’ve watched Inside the NBA in recent years, you know Charles Barkley has been a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers (and not just because they paid him back for a trip he made to Oregon he made in the 1990s).
It’s because he believes in Damian Lillard and Co., even saying during the bubble playoffs that they were going to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers (oops).
He’s confident in the Blazers yet again. On the NBA’s opening night on Tuesday, he said he wants to throw down $100,000 (!) on the Blazers winning the West. That’s right, he thinks the now-healthy Portland squad with Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, new addition Robert Covington, Melo off the bench and — eventually — Zach Collins can take down the Lakers or Clippers or Nuggets.
BOLD!
Chuck is putting his money where his mouth is 👀✍️ pic.twitter.com/3gWG7O44Lr
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) December 23, 2020
I honestly don’t hate it. From a gambling perspective, he’ll get some seriously good odds (over at BetMGM, he’d get +2200!). I’m not sure it’s that certain that Portland is better than the Lakers, who will figure out their rotation by midseason and be scary good.
But I do think the Blazers will be good enough to maybe grab the No. 3 or 4 seed. Is that worth $100K of risk? We’ll see.
