Being a basketball legend sure gets you a lot of perks in the basketball world but Charles Barkley proved that he has some pull in the hockey world as well.
The TNT NBA analyst was at Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning and he showed up on ESPN’s intermission show. Along with telling Mark Messier he owed Barkley $500, Barkley revealed that he got two tickets to the game by calling up NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1539058005638979584?s=20&t=Ya5OsHO3ZMJ7FHU7Vmm1Eg
I, for one, am not surprised that Barkley has the clout to simply decide that on the day of a Stanley Cup Final game that he wanted to go and just needed to make one call to get tickets. It’s just that somebody normally wouldn’t go to the commissioner of the league in order to get the tickets. Then again, if you got Bettman’s number, it’s smart to start at the top and work your way down until you can secure the tickets.
Barkley noted that he’s not necessarily a Lightning fan but he is a fan of head coach Jon Cooper so he’s rooting for the Lightning. At the time, Barkley had reason to celebrate as the Lightning had a 2-1 lead so if the Lightning can get the win, he might need to ring up the commish for some tickets to Game 4.
[ESPN]
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
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