I Was Nervous About The Celtics Game 4 Until The Moment Charles Barkley Opened His Mouth

I won’t sit here and lie to you, I was pretty much nervous wreck in preparation for Game 4 the second the final buzzer sounded on Friday night and the Celtics blew their homecourt advantage. I didn’t sleep at all that night, woke up and couldn’t eat Saturday morning, kept replaying the end of that third quarter all day in my head and then once again couldn’t sleep Saturday night. Maybe that makes me weird but whatever, this is how things have been for me and this team my entire life. They legit impact every aspect of my my day to day life good or bad. Kyrie can’t seem to beat Eric Bledsoe, Gordon Hayward is playing like it’s October and he forgot that he actually has talent, nobody can stop fouling Giannis, they keep crumbling in the face of adversity, there was plenty to be concerned about.

But then everything changed when I heard Charles Barkley open his mouth and say those words. If you’ve been watching Inside The NBA all year, you know that basically any sort of prediction from Chuck tends to make the exact opposite happen. It’s been that way for some time now, so to hear him be so emphatic that the Celtics will not win another game the rest of this series has me more confident than anything that could have possibly happened on the basketball court. I’m more confident now than I would be if it was the Celts actually had the 2-1 advantage, and I know that makes no sense but that’s how much of a positive this Chuck prediction is.

Hearing him say those words was like a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders. Suddenly I couldn’t find an ounce of nervousness in my body after basically freaking out for the previous 48 hours. You know what would have made me nervous? If he came out and said the Celtics win Game 4 and that this is going 7 or even that the Bucks were going to win in 6.

As a Bucks fan, I don’t know how this prediction doesn’t at least make you a little nervous. History is not kind to those on the positive side of a Chuck prediction, and honestly I would prefer if Chuck never mentioned my favorite team with any sort of prediction. It’s not worth the risk.

There’s no other way to say it, the Celtics season is on the line tonight. Teams that go up 3-1 win 96% of the time and I’d rather not have to deal with those odds. With the expected return of Marcus Smart and now this Barkley prediction, things have never been more in Boston’s favor. Please, for the love of God don’t fuck this up.