Charles Barkley said Jack Eichel blew him off in Florida hotel lobby
Charles Barkley might be a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, but he doesn’t appear to have a career too familiar to Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel.
During Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night, the current NBA on TNT panel member joined Sportsnet to do a quick interview explaining his thoughts on the series between the Golden Knights and Florida Panthers so far.
Charles Barkley got humbled by… Jack Eichel? š pic.twitter.com/PuMdISlS84
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 11, 2023
Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas tried to fit in a final question to Barkley, but he decided to tell the story of how he got big-timed by Eichel on Friday at a hotel in Florida.
“I gotta tell you something,” Barkley said. “So yesterday I was at the hotel. I walked up to Jack Eichel and said how great he was. I think he had zero idea who I was.”
Barkley, a longtime hockey fan, was in town for coverage of the NBA Finals, where the Denver Nuggets are currently leading the Miami Heat 3-1. But with a possible series-clinching Game 5 not until Monday, it appears that Barkley decided to stick around to check out the other championship series on the other side of town.
“[Eichel] was staying at the same hotel,” Barkley continued. “I said, Hey, Mr. Eichel, it’s an honour, you’re a great player, but he looked at me like ‘Who the hell are you?’ It was pretty funny.”
The second overall pick in the 2015 draft, Eichel’s dealt with his own bumps and bruises in his second season with the Golden Knights following a blockbuster trade from the Buffalo Sabres in November 2021. In Game 2, he was levelled by a hit from Matthew Tkachuk, while he briefly left Game 4 after taking a puck to the neck.
But just one game away from winning the Stanley Cup with his Golden Knights up 3-1 in the series, Eichel’s likely not too fussed about a few nicks on the ice, or a few strange encounters off the ice.
And hey, who knows? Maybe Eichel will even invite Barkley to the parade if he wins it all.
Follow Channels and Categories