The NBA on TNT is one of the best shows on television. The chemistry between the crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley is rare.. and great, but the show is at it’s best when Chuck is off the cuff. Kenny was out due to the birth of his child so C-Webb was on the set. The conversation started off with Kobe Bryant, his 15 technical fouls, and whether or not Kobe would get his 16th tech and the subsequent one game suspension. As he’s prone to do, Sir Charles ended up on a tangent and let us know that he wants to run over former ref Mike Mathis. Charles might’ve been kidding, but Mike Mathis should look both ways 4-5 times before he crosses the street.

Here’s the exchange if you can’t (or you’re to scared) to watch videos at work.

CB: The officials got to give him some leeway. He’s the best player we got in the league. Referees gotta say unless Kobe does something to really embarrass me, I got to let it go.

CW: He doesn’t have the Charles Barkley pass though. This is real nice what he’s (Barkley) saying but Jordan would kinda talk to you and hold his jersey like that (covering mouth), and Charles would just talk about your mama, daddy, and dare the ref to give him a tech and he wouldn’t get a tech. So everybody doesn’t have that card in the back.

CB: That was just Mike Mathis. That was just Mike Mathis. Mike Mathis is the only official I ever really hated. If I saw him walking down the street right now I’d stomp my gas and run over him like a dog.

CW: Tell us your real feelings.

EJ: See I thought you had gotten over that, I thought you had gotten past that, I thought you had moved past that. This is the new Charles.?.

CB: I’ll move right past him with my feet stuck on the gas.

EJ: Charles, it’s just so distressing to hear that.

CB: And you know what I’d do too? I’d back up to make sure he was gone.

Tags: Charles Barkley, NBA On TNT, video, youtube, vehicular homicide

If you’re making a call from jail after an attempted bank robbery, you’re probably not the criminal mastermind you imagined yourself to be. I’m sure the go in the bank, rob the bank, leave the bank, plan looked great on napkin, but things like cops and a foot chase can turn Lex Luthor into O.J. Simpson.

Meet Trammell Bledsoe. He and two other men tried to rob the Lafayette Ambassador Bank in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. After being arrested, Bledsoe placed a few calls to a buddy.. Knowing his calls could be monitored, he tried to slangbang on the phone.

Prosecutors listened to the calls, which were recorded, and heard Bledsoe telling Burton to go to a certain location and look for the ”Reggie Bush.”

Bush, a member of the New Orleans Saints, wears No. 25, which prosecutors say was an ”obvious reference” to the .25-caliber gun Bledsoe allegedly used in the robbery.

Bledsoe was later heard telling Burton to look for the ”Reggie Bush” under cars parked between ”Reggie Miller” and ”Patrick Ewing.”

Miller wore No. 31 and Ewing No. 33, and prosecutors say they were code for the site where Bledsoe was arrested near 31st and 33rd streets in Emmaus.

Bledsoe and his homey also used Chris Webber to refer to $4000 and Michael Jordan to refer to a .45. Did these guys really think this was gonna work? The cops were gonna be baffled by “the Reggie Bush”? Damn. I can’t believe they could pull of the actual robbery attempt with this simple minded thinking.

Feds: Defendants played name game. Courtesy of The Morningcall.com

Tags: Reggie Bush, Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, Chris Webber, Sports, NFL, NBA

I was 10 years old the first time I met an athlete. My pops had taken me to an N.C. State basketball game, and after the game he got us down to the Wolfpack locker room exit. It was the highlight of my life to that point. I got to stand there, talk to, and get autographs from Sidney Lowe, Derek Whittenburg, Chuck Nevitt, and Jim Valvano. Thurl Bailey slipped out but I’d catch up to him later.

 When I say I got to talk to, I might be slightly overstating it. Lowe and Whittenburg couldn’t have said more than 15 words to me..combined. And I was talking to Chuck Nevitt’s girlfriend more than I was talking to Big Chuck. She was telling me a story about Chuck buying a boat… Jim Valvano talked to me a little bit but the greatest thing about him was his consistency. He kept calling me A.C. instead of H.G. I met him about 10 years later when he was working for ABC and in town to call a Louisville/UCLA game. He kept calling me A.C. instead of H.G.

Since then, through work and dumb luck, I’ve crossed paths with a number of athletes. In the brief time that I’ve talked to any of them, I’ve always wound up with an impression. It’s probably not fair to judge somebody that quickly, but it’s all I get.

10. Bobby Bonilla: I met Bobby at a celebrity golf tournament. I was there as a member of the media, not being a celebrity, obviously. We talked Pirates, he talked cigars, and then we just stood around bullshittin’ for about 5 minutes. People passing by could only assume we had known each other for years.

9. Warren Sapp: 99 could be on the list or off the list. The first time I met him, he was still a Buc and Tampa had just signed Keyshawn. He was more than happy to chop it. He kept reiterating that Key was the key and now they were gonna win the Superbowl. The second time I met him, he was a Raider, and he didn’t have two words for me.

8. Lennox Lewis: I guess knowing you can knock out anybody in the building probably leaves you pretty relaxed. That’s what Lennox was. Real relaxed, real English, but he really didn’t wanna talk about Mike Tyson. He was still boxing at the time, so we mostly talked boxing. We talked a little music and he swore that when he hung up the gloves he was done.

7. Eric Karros: There’s no one time for EK. I met him a couple of times over the years and he was always cool. He didn’t take the business of baseball too seriously, but he loved the game. He always had time to talk baseball, and he’s good for a joke about an opposing team/player.

6. Tracy McGrady: I talked to T-Mac for about 10 minutes at a party. He had just joined the Rockets, which was precluded by rumors of Shaq going to Orlando to be teamed up with McGrady. T-Mac gave me his opinions on why the deal never got done, but said Houston was a good move too. We gm’d on what some of the other teams in the league should do, and he told me the things he was gonna miss most in Orlando. It was just an average conversation between an NBA player and some dude at a party.

5. Thurl Bailey: Meeting him wasn’t as cool as it was sentimental. I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet Thurl without Karl Malone arranging the meeting. We talked N.C. State hoops for a little  bit, and then I asked him to sign the “Go Pack” sheet that had the Valvano, Nevitt, Lowe, and Whittenburg autographs on it. I thought he was gonna cry. You should have seen how that piece of paper took him back in time. It was a great moment, and to this day those are the only 4 5 autographs I have.

4. Lenny Harris/Mike Sharperson/Darryl Strawberry: I went to the worst/best post game barbecue in the early 90s. It was bad because there wasn’t much food, the grill was on somebody’s patio, and there weren’t more than 3 ladies there. Then Lenny, Sharp (R.I.P.), and Strawberry rolled in and things livened up a little. Lenny Harris was in rare form, Sharperson wasn’t sure who they played next (it was Atlanta, and the games were important. The Dodgers were in a pennant race.), and they all wanted to get the hell out of there before Kal Daniels showed up. They were gonna go out on the town for the night and they didn’t wanna drag him around. Kal showed up to everybody’s dismay (I think even me and my buddies by this point). Darryl was cool as could be, and even sought us out before he left to say “nice to meet y’all”. He then got in his black Mercedes, cranked the beat, and bounced. He was dope.

3. Karl Malone and John Stockton: I didn’t meet them together but you can’t have one without the other. I got a chance to do some work with Karl, and I gotta say he pretty much is what you see on tv. A big country dude that prefers a small city and starry nights. He’ll say some shit that will have you dyin’, not neccesarily intentionally, but he was a cool cat.

I met John Stockton after a Jazz/Clippers game. It was weird… The Jazz weren’t in any hurry to get to the bus or anything like that and I ended up standing there, talking, to John Stockton… and Peter Vecsey walks over. It didn’t ruin the conversation I was having with Stockton although it didn’t make it better either. The best part of the conversation was when John was breaking down Utah’s pick and roll, explaining how they have limitless options depending on what the defense does, and basically saying Stockton/Malone= Unstoppable.

2. Chris Webber: I useta go out with a chick that thought Chris Webber was the finest man on the planet. You could call her a C-Webb Stan. When I met Webber, we started off talking basketball, and during the conversation I thought about Ms. C-Webb Stan. Camera phones weren’t around yet, but I did have my trusty recorder that I carried with me everywhere for work purposes. I told Webber that I had a friend that thought he was the biz and asked if he could say something nice to her on tape. He takes the recorder and does 1 minute 30 seconds of telling her how much he’d like to meet her and if things go well they can get married in his backyard. It was some of the funniest shit I had ever heard. As you can guess, she was pretty damn happy with that tape.

1. Derek Fisher: Probably one of the top ten coolest people I’ve ever met. You’d be hard pressed to find somebody with a bad word to say about D-Fish. I’ve met him through work and in social settings and he’s been the same all the time. Cool and down to the Earth.

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