The New York Knicks put together a remarkable, historic comeback to take down the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. New York trailed by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter — with 7:52 remaining — and sent the game to overtime before running away with a 115-104 win at Madison Square Garden. It’s the NBA’s second-largest fourth-quarter comeback in the history of the play-by-play era. Entering the game, NBA teams were 1-594 since 1997-98 when trailing by at least 22 points in the fourth quarter.
So, it was a mind-blowing comeback by the Knicks.
It was also a rough collapse by the Cavaliers, and that’s the part Charles Barkley focused on after the game on ESPN’s Inside the NBA.
Just seconds into the show, which followed the ESPN broadcast of Game 1, Barkley referred to the loss as a “choke job” by the Cavaliers.
Charles Barkley on the Cavs: “Hell yeah that was a choke job.” #NBA pic.twitter.com/alyhnQmYEp
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 20, 2026
“You get something stuck in your throat,” Barkley said as the Cavs-Knicks highlights began on Inside the NBA. “You get choking.”
“Oh, you’re using that word, huh?” Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson responded.
“Oh yeah. Hell yeah that was a choke job,” Barkley said with conviction.
“Choke job?” Kenny Smith questioned.
“Hell yeah,” Barkley responded. “Hell yeah that was a choke job… That was a choke job. Come on, man. They started taking the air out of the ball with six minutes to go like dummies.”
Barkley was back on it later, as Inside the NBA showed a graphic detailing the numbers from the Knicks’ comeback.
Charles Barkley: “I don’t like to get on TV and say people choked, but that was a damn choke job… That was a damn gag job right there.” #NBA https://t.co/c2fpA5Vho8 pic.twitter.com/6LC9BnElNM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 20, 2026
“You know, Ernie, I take my job very seriously,” Barkley explained. “I don’t like to get on TV and say people choked. But that was a damn choke job… I’m very selective when I say that.”
“What makes you choke, and what makes you lose the game?” Smith asked.
“So, they had a [22-point lead], and they just started milking the clock. Like, a prevent offense,” Barkley said.
“Not only that, Chuck; I don’t think the coach from the Cavaliers (Kenny Atkinson) had great use of timeouts,” Shaquille O’Neal added.
“He let the lead go from like 20 to six, Ernie, and never called a timeout,” Barkley explained. “But my problem was, if you go back and look, when you showed those highlights in the beginning, the ball was moving. Everybody was getting wide-open shots. You go back and look at the first six or eight minutes of that fourth quarter, they were just going one-on-one, the shot clock was on their back every single time. And Kenny (Atkinson) should have called timeout sooner.”
“I give (Jalen) Brunson a lot of credit. He was fantastic, and the other guys chipped in.” Barkley said. “But that was a damn gag job right there.”
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.