The past few hours have been a moment to celebrate for some NBA fans! After recording their fourth win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Dallas Mavericks will now head to the NBA Finals for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Along with this achievement, the franchise’s lead scorer, Luka Doncic, has received his first-ever Western Conference Finals MVP title after six years in the league. Having finally reached this pivotal stage after not giving up over the past half-decade, Doncic is now asking another group of individuals to not give up: the crew over at ‘NBA on TNT’.

Barely an hour after the conclusion of Game 5, Luka Doncic sat down with the charismatic crew of Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. In the segment with Doncic present, Barkley says the eerie words that will haunt their fans forever. He looked in Doncic’s direction and said, “Enjoy the finals, we’re going to miss you. We’re done after tonight”. However, the Slovenian player was not ready to hear this.

Instead, Doncic decided to respond by saying, “You ain’t done yet. We’ve got to figure out something”.

Ernie Johnson Jr. assured fans (and probably the viewers) that no matter the outcome, the ‘Inside the NBA’ will watch the Finals and may even be present to host during next year’s tournament as well. However, Barkley’s remark once again ended up reminding fans that this beloved group of four is set to break up if TNT does not come up with a foolproof solution.

Ever since rumors have been swirling that the NBA is planning to hand over TNT’s media rights to Disney/ESPN, Amazon, and NBC, everyone has been on edge. Contrary to the majority, however, Charles Barkley has been quite vocal in sounding out his displeasure. He even went as far as to give an interview to the New York Times, even though his co-host Kenny Smith reportedly asked him not to.

“It’s people’s lives,” said the Philadelphia 76ers legend during the interview. “Not my life. Not Ernie’s life. Not Kenny’s life. Not Shaq’s life. But all the people who work here. We probably have 100 people who do work on the show. So, they’re, like, real people. I’ve seen their kids born, graduate high school, graduate college.”

Luka Doncic wanted Charles Barkley and ‘Inside the NBA’ to hate on him to increase motivation factor

Having been a prominent member of the NBA world for over six years now, it would have been surprising if Luka Doncic had never heard of ‘Inside the NBA’. As fans would later find out, not only did the player know about the show, but he was also a frequent viewer. This is why when he caught Charles Barkley making a prediction, he went out of his way to ensure that the same would go wrong.

Almost two weeks ago, the Mavericks had won Game 5 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, bringing their record to 3-2. During a post-game Q&A session, the Slovenian player was asked about his review of ‘Inside the NBA’. With a smile on his face, he replied, “I love that show. I love those four guys. I always watch it, all the games. Maybe next time, he (Barkley) can say it again in the next game. So maybe we will win again”.

After Luka Doncic and co. had lost Game 4 against OKC, Charles Barkley went out of his way to state that OKC would manage to repeat their success during Game 5 as well.

“I’m expecting that place to be loud, and I’m expecting OKC to run them out of the building,” said the ‘Inside the NBA’ host.

The words caught the attention of Luka Doncic, and he used the same to propel his game forward. The rest, as they say, is history.