Charles Barkely lost an eye-watering $1billion (£799million) bet with fellow NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal after his prediction of the Miami Heat beating the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament backfired on Tuesday night.
The 1993 NBA MVP predicted the Heat to comfortably beat the Hawks, who have had a far from consistent regular season. In fact, big changes are expected to come at the Hawks, with star man Trae Young potentially being traded away should a good deal be put forward.
“Yeah they going to beat the Hawks, come on, the Hawks stink,” Barkley, 60, said. “Bet whatever you want to. A billion dollars.”
But what followed Barkley’s prediction was a 116-105 upset victory over Miami for Atlanta. To make matters worse for Barkley, the Hawks out-rebounded the Heat 63-39 while grabbing an astounding 22 offensive rebounds to Miami's six.
O’Neal was, of course, smug following the Hawks’ shock victory, and the four-time NBA champion decided to gloat. Shaq held his pinky finger against his face to represent the billion dollars he was receiving from Barkley. “Shaq is $1billion dollars richer today,” TNT co-star Kenny Smith quipped.
The Hawks’ official Twitter account even joined in with poking fun at Barkley. They replied to O'Neal and Barkley's bet with a meme and crying-laughing emojis.
Barkley will be cautious next time talking so loosely about the Hawks. The Atlanta franchise will be hoping to cause another upset on Saturday when the begin their best of seven series against Eastern Conference second seeds, the Boston Celtics, in the first round of the NBA Play-Offs.
“Obviously, Boston has a really good team, but I haven’t really looked like too far ahead,” star man Young said. “I mean, obviously, I’ve watched them all year playing; they’ve been playing really well. But I was really focused on tonight and making sure we won. I know Jimmy (Butler) guaranteed a dub, so I was really focused on making sure that didn’t happen.”
Miami, meanwhile, will play the Chicago Bulls on Friday after the latter beat the Toronto Raptors 105-109.
