On just the first day of the NBA regular season, former player and TNT announcer Charles Barkley has already made one of his famous “guarantees”. Before the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors faced off at 7:00 Chuck got one of his predictions for the upcoming season.
“The Hawks and the Wizards are making the playoffs, guaranteed!”
https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/1341507661083234305
Chuck makes this prediction off an interesting offseason for both the Hawks and the Wizards. The Hawks signed former Sacramento Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in free agency after a proposed sign and trade with the Milwaukee Bucks fell through. Atlanta also traded for sharpshooting small forward Danilo Gallinari from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Washington Wizards made even bolder offseason moves, trading their All-Star point guard John Wall to the Houston Rockets for Russell Westbrook. The trade came after Westbrook reportedly requested a trade just after the conclusion of the 2020 season.
Sadly the 1993 MVP Barkley has not had a lot of luck with his “guarantees” in the past. According to Fanduel, Chuck only has a 13.7% success rate with his predictions.
Chuck's guarantee win % 😭 @br_betting pic.twitter.com/wYNga6NI4p
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 19, 2020
It will be interesting to see what will happen in Washington and Atlanta in the upcoming season. Superstitious Hawks and Wizards fans might see their season as doomed by this prediction. But with a number of key players moving from the Western Conference to the East, the balance of the league is up in the air.
