Charles Barkley picked the Celtics to win a championship in October. He said they weren’t tough enough to win it in February. But now with the NBA Finals about to tip off, Barkley is back on the Boston Bandwagon.
Speaking on TNT, Barkley made his prediction.
“I still haven’t seen anything to make me think the Celtics are not going to win the championship, said Barkley, who said he’d still pick them even if Kristaps Porzingis, who is expected to play, can’t. ”We’ve got another week, but I’d still like the Celtics without Porzingis. They have four guys who can guard Luca and Kyrie and Luca and Kyrie can’t guard those guys on the other end. I think it’s gonna be a hell of a series but I like the Celtics.”
This is a heel turn from the famously blunt pundit.
In February after the Celtics lost to the Lakers, Barkley said the Celtics were just “playing on talent.”
“They’ve got a really good record, but they’re not gonna win the championship,” Barkley said.
Jayson Tatum defended his team on CBS Mornings.
“You don’t always have to agree,” Tatum said. “But you have to, in a sense, respect it because of the work that they put in. I understand that in the times that we’re in. You can’t win it – nobody can win a championship until you do it. So nobody’s going to give us the credit until we actually do it and that’s fine.”
Barkley originally picked them to win after the Celtics traded for Jrue Holliday.
“The one thing the Celtics were missing was a point guard, and they got probably the best point guard available,” Barkley told The Washington Post. “I said, ‘Wow, man, the Milwaukee Bucks are gonna be the favorite.’ And then the next week, the Celtics got Jrue Holiday, I said, ‘Oh, let me change that.’ So if you ask me right now, I’d probably pick the Celtics to win this thing. I like the (Kristaps) Porzingis trade.”
Game 1 is Thursday at TD Garden.
