The best thing about Charles Barkley is his willingness to be an open book. Unless you’re Kenny Smith and he’s revealing your hotel room number on live TV.
After Tuesday night’s slate of games on TNT, which carried In-Season Tournament significance, Ernie Johnson wanted to look ahead to next week’s games on Inside the NBA. But as Johnson attempted to steer the show to the schedule, Barkley reached over and snatched something that was sitting on the table in front of Smith.
It was very much like a high school teacher getting interrupted by a student who stole something from another kid’s desk. But instead of a teacher and students in class, it was Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith on live TV.
As soon as Smith realized what Barkley took, a look of panic appeared on his face as he dove across the table to retrieve the item. It was Smith’s hotel room key.
“Hey guys, Kenny’s in room 510!” Barkley said with a laugh as Smith desperately reached for his room key back. “Kenny’s in room 510, y’all.”
“Oh man,” Johnson said with disappointment. “Chuckster, you can’t be doing that! And why do you have your key out anyway? You going somewhere?”
Maybe Smith was getting antsy. It was around 1:20am when Barkley snatched his room key. The NBA on TNT studio crew was already on-air for over six hours and stayed live for another 45 minutes, bleeding into the 2am hour. That’s a long night! They were all probably pretty eager to get out of the studio and back to their hotel.
But Barkley wasn’t working alone here. Worse than Barkley announcing Smith’s room number on live TV was a TNT camera zooming in on the key. Not only did it confirm that Smith was staying in room 510, but the camera shot also inadvertently revealed that he was staying at the Four Seasons. Barkley just shared some of the info, TNT revealed the whole thing. Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, room number 510.