There’s a reason why Sir Charles was very quiet on the Clippers melodrama. He was saving it for his ESPN debut. Inside the NBA is back this season in limited edition on ESPN on Wednesday night and the crew made the most of it. One of the first things on order was previewing tonight’s game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz at Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Charles Barkley & Co. finally unleashed their trademarked unscripted, unpredictable humor on ESPN with a sneaky jab at the Aspiration drama. And maybe it was warranted. The game is at halftime right now and not looking so great with the Clippers down 78-47.

The bookkeepers put the Clippers at 5th seed last playoffs no thanks to Kawhi Leonard. And that was before the Aspiration drama was unraveled. Chuckster picked the Rockets and the Nuggets as the teams to watch out in the West, despite a stacked roster in the other LA team. When Kenny Smith asked him why, Chuck dropped this gem.

“Well Kawhi got two jobs,” said Barkley. “He can’t work two jobs and play basketball.”

That’s how The Round Mound of Rebound cracked up the Inside Crew on their first day at ESPN. To the uninitiated, the other job he’s referring to is Leonard’s ‘no-show’ deal with a company called Aspiration.

Chuck had evaded the topic on the few sporadic offseason interviews. The last time he talked about Kawhi Leonard, it was about his rollercoaster health issues. Actually, what is going to happen when Inside the NBA officially aired on TNT’s rival network took most of his bandwidth. Those details were ironed out before the season began but the Clippers’ nightmare is far from over.

The Inside Guys rip into the Clippers drama

Social media noticed the pattern. NBA vets, retired and active, are either indifferent or amused by the Clippers situation. After Charles Barkley said that, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal even joked that Kawhi got an ‘NIL deal’ to focus on. Considering this crew isn’t big on NIL either, that would be two birds.

Pablo Torre revealed that the fintech company, Aspiration, that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested in, paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million. That was reportedly a sham endorsement deal to circumvent the salary cap and avoid luxury tax. (Hate to be that kind who explains a joke but…) Chuckster implying it’s a real job outside of Kawhi’s regular basketball job and calling it an NIL deal because that’s the official term for the non-professional salaries of  NCAA players is the best way to summarize it.

Better than Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson joking it’s Kawhi’s ‘tree job.’ Robert Horry was among the players who hinted that this isn’t all that uncommon and found a tree-planting company hilariou. Gilbert Arenas outrightly said nothing is going to happen to team and Leonard will be on his basketball business like nothing happened.

Steve Ballmer claims he was a victim of investor fraud as Aspiration went bankrupt. The NBA is currently investigating the issue while the Clippers continue as usual, waiting for a decision. But this comment on Inside the NBA once again proves no NBA vet believes anything will come out of this.