The 2017 NBA Playoffs have been the polar opposite of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The latter has had closer series, a record pace of overtime games and dramatic storylines that would have captivated the sports world if, you know, people cared about hockey. The former has been, in the words of Adam Caparell of Complex, “one of the most disappointing and anticlimactic playoffs we can remember” as written in his subtle treatise on the basketball postseason: “This Year’s NBA Playoffs Have Been Trash So Far.”

As he notes: If a blowout win is at least a 15-point margin of victory, then 17 of the first 59 games of the playoffs were blowouts.

One of the leading critics of the NBA Playoffs and the NBA’s current state has been Charles Barkley, venerable studio analyst for Turner. Last year he said “I’ve never seen the NBA as bad as it is.” This year, he’s gone way beyond that comment by saying one of the single most offensive things he could say to a basketball fan, we imagine:

He’d rather be watching hockey.

Here’s Barkley on TNT last night, during a goofball segment they do where the hosts “go fishin’” after a team is eliminated. The catalyst for the comment is the fact that the Zamboni was invented in Utah, This will all makes sense in a moment.

Said Barkley:

“Speaking of a Zamboni, thank God for the NHL Playoffs. That’s what I would be watching in the back instead of some of these blowouts.”

Dammmmmmn.

Said Ernie Johnson:

“Well, whatever.”

Now, Charles has been a sleeper agent for hockey for years, having previously used the NBA on TNT to discuss the playoff fortunes of the Tampa Bay Lightning and telling Sportsnet that “I think the NHL playoffs are the best playoffs in the world. I have all the games on. There’s nothing more exciting than the hockey playoffs.”

We look forward to the next subliminal advertisement for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, sir.

This has been another edition of Please Like My Sport. Thanks for reading.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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