11-21-2002, 05:01 PM
This is funny. I have to see this. Hope he farts in his face.
Quote:Giddy Smith tells Barkley to pucker up
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ESPN.com news services
Thanks to the best game of Yao Ming's young NBA career, Kenny Smith is practically giddy.
His buddy and NBA on TNT studio co-host Charles Barkley, meanwhile, is eating some crow and will be kissing some behind during halftime of Thursday's Rockets-Mavericks game on the network.
Smith on Monday told the Houston Chronicle that he will make Barkley live up to an on-air bet the two made last week. Barkley said that if Yao scored 19 points in a game this year, he would kiss Smith's posterior.
Payoff time, Smith said after Yao scored 20 points in the Rockets' 93-89 victory over the Lakers on Sunday.
"I am going to pay up (Thursday) night," Barkley said Wednesday on CNN's "TalkBack Live'' program. "If you make a bet, you pay up. I just told Kenny to take a shower before the show. I made the bet and I'm going to stick by my word. Ugh.''
Smith replied by saying, "Sometimes even when you win, you lose.''
Barkley said payment will be delivered during his talk show, "Listen Up!'' which airs at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday night, before TNT's doubleheader.
Barkley's pronouncement grew out of Smith's assertion that if the Rockets are to return to the playoffs, Yao will need to become the team's best player.
"Charles went bananas over that," Smith said. "I wasn't knocking Steve (Francis) or Cuttino (Mobley), but I was saying that if the Rockets are going to win and get back in the playoffs, it's the big guy that's going to make it happen."
Smith said he researched the NBA beginning of T-Wolves' star Kevin Garnett, who entered the league out of high school, and found that Garnett had similar numbers to what Yao has been posting this year.
"One thing jumped out at me, and that was the fact that Garnett had a 19-point game in that span," Smith said. "I said that Yao will have a 20-point game and bump his numbers up, and Charles said that if Yao Ming scores 19 points, he would kiss my (behind)."
Yao hit all nine of his field-goal attempts and two free throws to put Barkley on the spot.
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