The NBA’s play-in tournament is pretty fun, but it’s also one of the most confusing things about the NBA right now.
It gets sort of complicated. It’s a tournament between the 7, 8, 9 and 10 seeds in each conference. The 7 and the 8 seed play each other to determine who will play for a final playoff spot against the winner of a series between the 9 and 10 seed.
Whoever wins the game between the 9 and 10 seed gets to play the 8 seed in a sudden elimination series. They have to beat the team twice to win a playoff spot. If they lose once, they’re eliminated.
That’s a lot! And it’s sort of hard to explain. So, of course, the Inside the NBA crew had Charles Barkley do the breakdown for fans.
And it went about as terribly as you’re probably thinking it did. It was hilarious.
Charles attempts to explain the play-in tournament on this edition of "Chuck Talks" 🤣 pic.twitter.com/DGdZVHv0Fd
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 7, 2021
“The two losers are going to play each other. The two half losers are going to play each other…Then the two top losers move over here and the winner gets moved over here. And the two baby losers, the 7 and 8, they play over here…”
Just a bunch of nothing. It was incredible. If you thought you knew how they play-in worked before, you probably don’t have that explanation.
We are all Ernie Johnson in this scenario.
Hopefully the play-in is as fun as Barkley’s awful explainer was.
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