Charles Barkley Cracks Bronny James Joke Before Start Of NBA Playoffs

With the NBA playoffs set to begin later this week, Charles Barkley couldn't help but take a jab at Bronny James.

Bronny, the son of NBA legend LeBron James, just wrapped up his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 2.9 points and 1.2 assists per game while making 38.6% of his attempts from beyond the arc.

As the "Inside the NBA" crew was breaking down the regular-season finale for the Lakers, Barkley said he's not allowed to make any negative comments about Bronny.

"I'll tell you what, we can't say nothing bad about Bronny," the Hall of Famer said. "We don't want Bron walking up on us on center court."

This was most definitely a joke about LeBron James confronting ESPN's Stephen A. Smith as he was sitting courtside at a Knicks-Lakers game. That exchange led to the "First Take" personality unleashing spirited rants on just about every sports show.

"There's no situation, and there's no relationship. He doesn't like me, and I don't like him. You ever see LeBron go at a white boy? Let's call it what it is. You ever see him do that? You'll say you saw him come at me. You saw him come at me," Smith said, via Awful Announcing. "Closest you ever came to seeing him do something like that [to a white journalist] was when he called out Brian Windhorst. What you calling out Brian Windhorst for? The man covered you since junior high school and has praised you repeatedly and you used the Pat McAfee situation to go at him. [T]hat's the only time you ever seen LeBron James really go at somebody white. I'm going to call it what it is."

Bronny is being honored by Nike.

Just a few days ago, Nike unveiled the LeBron IX Witness PER that were "inspired by Bronny's recovery and journey back to the court."

It was reported in March that Nike filed a trademark for Bronny. The former USC guard has a personal logo that essentially looks like a lower-case "b."

The Lakers might need Bronny to play a few minutes in the first round of the playoffs, especially with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves banged up.

Game 1 of the Lakers-Rockets series will take place on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 6:54 AM.