1. Every single one of you reading this has at one point in your life faked “food poisoning” to get out of a day of work. It’s just one of those things people in the workforce do from time to time ...
And when you try to pull this move, not one of your coworkers believes you. They know you’re trying to pull a fast one and you just want to spend the day in bed or hit the beach.
Most people won’t call out a coworker for trying to get away with the fake food poisoning routine because it’s sort of an unwritten rule that everyone will try to get away with it at some point , so it’s best everyone just keeps their mouths shut.
But Charles Barkley is not most people.
When Kenny Smith called in sick Sunday night and missed the regular-season finale of Inside the NBA, Barkley put his longtime colleague on blast.
As Ernie Johnson announced Smith’s absence and offered well wishes on a speedy recovery, Barkley interrupted.
“First of all, I’m gonna tell you why he’s lying,” said Barkley. “He just wants an extra couple of days at home. Kenny’s a vegetarian. Nobody gets sick eating that crap. I can get sick eating chitlins, neck bones, burgers and pizza. Nobody gets [sick from] that broccolini crap, asparagus, he eats those black bean burgers. There’s no way that crap can make you sick.”
Johnson opined that maybe it was some bad tofu that got to Smith.
“Tofu’s not a thing,” said Barkley.
“It’s very much a thing,” replied Johnson.
“I would never know,” declared Barkley.
Charles then scolded Johnson for sending Smith well wishes.
“He’s not sick. Don’t send him no good stuff,” said Barkley.
Charles ended his rant by saying, “Kenny, enjoy your last two days off before the playoffs.”
We are so lucky to have Inside the NBA.
2. Thank you for your service, Rich Eisen.
3. ESPN struck gold Sunday night by having Red Sox center fielder Kiké Hernández miked up for the team’s game against the Yankees. During the sixth inning, play-by-play man, Karl Ravech asked Hernández how he would play it if New York’s Anthony Rizzo hit a ball his way when the Yankees had runners on second and third. As soon as Hernández was done answering, Rizzo smacked a base hit to center, prompting Hernández to say, “Here it is!,” while chasing the ball.
4. Here’s your Quote of the Day from Red Sox reliever Jake Diekman, who struck out Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo to earn the save in Boston’s 4–3 win against the Yankees on Sunday night.
5. For the Yankees fans and everyone else who will hate-watch this, ESPN dropped the trailer for its upcoming Derek Jeter documentary series.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast features a conversation with Adnan Virk of the MLB Network and the NHL Network.
Topics covered include the start of the Major League Baseball season and my issues with MLB’s exclusive streaming deals, Tiger Woods playing in the Masters, what we’d like to see Elon Musk change at Twitter, HBO’s Winning Time, East Coast bias, Bill Raftery, Mike Trout, Chris Russo’s renaissance, Jim Miller’s excellent HBO book, the death of Seinfeld‘s Estelle Harris and much more.
Virk, who hosts the Cinephile podcast, also had very strong opinions on the Will Smith–Chris Rock Oscar’s controversy and what the Academy Awards got wrong.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
