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The New York Knicks staved off elimination from the NBA Playoffs on Thursday night with a 111-94 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, but basketball great Charles Barkley is not sold on the NBA championship coming back to the Big Apple.
In a post-game interview with award-winning director and Knicks superfan Spike Lee on “Inside the NBA,” Barkley let slip his true feelings about the Knicks’ chances of winning their first championship since 1973.
“I would give up an Academy Award, Oscar for the Knicks to win a championship,” Lee said during the broadcast. “I got two already,”
As Lee went on to double down on his commitment to the team, he was interrupted by Barkley’s quip.
“You gonna keep them.”
The remark incited laughs from the entire TNT crew and Barkley apologized for not using his “inner voice.”
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“There’s no filter on this guy, you’ve known him long enough. If he thinks it, it’s coming out,” Ernie Johnson Jr. added with a laugh.
Despite Barkley’s doubts, the Knicks did put on an award-worthy show on Thursday night.
Jalen Brunson scored 32 points, and an injured Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points and 13 rebounds just two nights after giving up 43 points to the Pacers in the first quarter.
“Our backs were against the wall. So, I mean, we’ve got to give it everything we got,” Brunson said.
The Knicks return to Indiana hoping to repeat their Game 5 performance on Saturday night. No team has won a conference finals series after dropping the first two games at home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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