Barkley Picks Dallas To Win It All

This should come as a surprise to no one, but TNT commentator Charles Barkley is picking your Dallas Mavericks to win the 2011 NBA Championship over the Miami Heat.

“I think the Mavericks have a really good chance. I think they’re gonna win this series,” Charles Barkley said Thursday, per the Orlando Sentinel. “I like this Mavs team. Some of the stuff that the Heat does against the Bulls won’t work against the Mavs because they have guys. They ain’t gonna be passing that ball over to [Joakim] Noah. They’re gonna be passing that ball to [Peja] Stojakovic, Jason Terry. They’re gonna be able to score.”

Barkley predicted that the Mavs would win it all before the playoffs began, and has become something of a pariah in Miami during this postseason. He was booed loudly by fans outside of American Airlines Arena prior to games during the Eastern Conference Finals for his criticism of the Heat, LeBron James in particular, and greeted with chants of “Barkley sucks.”.

On the other hand, one would imagine that in Dallas, the former outspoken-Mavs-critic Barkley has never been more popular.