Charles Barkley Wants To Bet $100,000 The Blazers Win The West

Being rich as hell must be so awesome. Imagine being able to literally set 100K on fire without a care in the world? I cannot even comprehend that world. I respect Chuck for putting this on tape, but man do I feel for Blazers fans. You don't deserve this. You don't deserve to have your season ended before you even play your first game. But make no mistake about it, it's a wrap. You get a Chuck guarantee like this and that pretty much seals your fate.

I can understand his thinking I guess. The last time the Blazers were healthy they made it to the WCF. Yeah, they promptly lost in 4 games to the Warriors, but that's the Steph/KD Warriors. They don't exist anymore. They also won that one game against the Lakers in the bubble last year which was cool, and again they weren't even healthy. Now Nurkic is back, they brought in a nice 3 and D player in Robert Covington, Rodney Hood is back from his achilles, and Dame is still Dame. Chuck certainly isn't the only person who was high on the Blazers this offseason, but he is the only person that has the power to ruin their season before it starts. If he truly felt the Blazers were going to make the Finals, he would have put this guarantee on one of their competitors. 

As I put in their preview blog, nothing the Blazers did this offseason matters unless they are going to drastically improve on the defensive end. They couldn't stop anyone to save their lives. I'm pretty sure every stoolie reading this blog could put up an efficient 14 points against that defense. It was that bad. Of the teams that made the playoffs last year, only OKC is really poised to take a step back while teams like MEM/PHX/NO are all going to be better. Even GS might not stink this year (last night notwithstanding). Let's say the Blazers take OKCs spot as like the 5 seed. They could face someone like HOU/UTA/DAL in the first round. You get past that, it's most likely another rematch against the Lakers or a date with the Clippers. That's not exactly encouraging.

I have no doubt that Blazers fans were excited for this season now that guys are back and Dame is ready to put up an MVP caliber season, so this has to be devastating for them. At this point, why even play out the regular season or the playoffs? Your fate has been determined. That's tough.