CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charles Barkley isn’t buying what Larry Brown is selling.
The SMU coach said this week that unbeaten Kentucky would make the NBA playoffs out of the Eastern Conference.
“That’s stupid, that’s just stupid,” Barkley said Saturday on CBS. “No college team can compare with an NBA team.
Clark Kellogg agreed.
“The jump going from high school to college is huge, the jump from college to pro is huger,” Kellogg said. “I think Larry was just trying to make the point of how good potentially this Kentucky team is.”
Said Barkley: “They’re a terrific team and they got a great coach in coach [John] Calipari. First of all, I still didn’t pick them to win this tournament…”
Kenny Smith then called 35-0 Kentucky — which plays Cincinnati on Saturday — “a good little college team.”
“I’m going to take it to an all-time low, the New York Knicks can beat Kentucky, come on,” Barkley said. “The New York Knicks.”
The Knicks lost to the Sixers by 16 points on Friday night and own the NBA’s worst record (14-55) and best chance of landing the No. 1 pick, presumably Duke’s Jahlil Okafor or Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns.
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