Charles Barkley: Kobe Bryant was almost part of Inside The NBA crew

Apparently, he had another media venture that he considered once before eventually passing on it. And that was being a member of the NBA on TNT Thursday night crew. We could’ve apparently had some mixture of Charles Barkley, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. That’s according to Barkley, anyway. The NBA on TNT host visited Draymond Green’s podcast and explained how Bryant had actually signed a contract to come on the show but “didn’t want to do all the other .”
Source: Mike D. Sykes @ For The Win

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Justin Kubatko @jkubatko
Wilt Chamberlain made 36 FG and 28 FT in his 100-point effort.
How crazy is that? Only four other players in NBA history have made at least 36 FG and 28 FT over a TWO-GAME span:
✅ Elgin Baylor
✅ Pete Maravich
✅ Michael Jordan
✅ Kobe Bryant pic.twitter.com/rcer9ddU5h – 10:01 AM

CBS NBA @CBSSportsNBA
Kobe Bryant almost joined ‘NBA on TNT’ crew after retirement, per Charles Barkley, and it would have been epic
https://t.co/qYvQxIcvzz pic.twitter.com/X3RmmLV0ne – 9:42 AM

Chris Broussard @Chris_Broussard
Ja Morant is the most exciting player to enter the league since Vince & Kobe. Not the best, but the most electrifying. – 12:04 PM

Nick DePaula @NickDePaula
Kobe 6 customs for @Ja Morant tonight. 👀
🎨: @realSIERATO pic.twitter.com/pro0flKcMb – 8:02 PM

Tommy Beer @TommyBeer
one more random stat:
Kevin Durant has scored in double-digits in every postseason game he’s ever played in.
KD’s current steak of 151 straight games with at least 10 points in the playoffs is the third-longest in NBA history, behind only MJ (179) and Kobe (171) – 5:43 PM

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
Jayson Tatum’s final game as a 23-year old is Tuesday. Tonight he passed Anthony Davis into what will be his final spot, 12th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list for players 23 and under.
Trailing only LeBron, KD, Melo, T-Mac, Kobe, Booker, Shaq, KAT, Dwight, Wiggins and Giannis – 10:27 PM

Tommy Beer @TommyBeer
Embiid is now 23-of-27 from the FT line this afternoon.
The 23 made free throws is tied (with Kobe Bryant) for the most FT’s ever made by an opponent at MSG in a single game – 3:37 PM

More on this storyline

Take a listen. “He had signed with us. David Levy, my old boss, had signed him to a deal. And we were excited. We were really excited. And then he called me back a week, 10 days later…like, ‘Yeah, Kobe’s not going to come.’ I’m like, ‘why?’ Because he don’t want to do all the PR stuff. He don’t want to go on radio shows and talk about basketball. Like, well, that’s part of the gig…He didn’t want to do all that and he never came to work for us.” -via For The Win / March 2, 2022