Forget rigorous exercising. Forget a revamped diet that puts a high premium on nutrition.
What will help TNT analyst Charles Barkley shed down those extra pounds directly ties into the Lakers’ fortunes, namely their lack thereof.
“I’m not going to eat again until the Lakers win a game,” Barkley said Thursday on the TNT telecast.
Barkley later amended his comments that he “won’t eat another meal,” allowing himself some wiggle room to drink water and munch on snacks. But either way the TNT crew in Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith are projecting Barkley to suffer soon from starvation. As my colleague Vinny Bonsignore outlined, the Lakers 0-5 start could become much worse. The Lakers play Charlotte on Sunday, play in a back-to-back against Memphis (Tuesday) and New Orleans (Wednesday) before returning home to host San Antonio (Friday) and Golden State (Sunday).
All of those teams are projected to make the NBA playoffs, while the Lakers are considered by many only to stay in contention for lottery ping pong balls. But it could get much worse.
“What if Kobe [Bryant] twists his ankle?” Smith asked.
“If Kobe’s not playing,” Barkley said amid laughter, “I could die.”
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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com