As soon as The Steam Room resumed, Charles Barkley continued the same tirade he’d been talking about on Inside the NBA. Among the many things that annoy him – load management, Internet trolls, San Antonio, water – tanking wins the honor of grinding his nerves. It’s gotten so bad, they’ve forced Chuck to do something he never did before. Actual basketball analysis. His observations are so bad, it even made the usually level-headed voice of neutrality, Ernie Johnson make a scathing remark on the embarrassing trend.

Chuck and Ernie opened The Steam Room specifically targeting the pattern of teams intentionally losing to secure better draft odds. Barkley, who has made this specific proposal several times over the last three seasons, argued that the complex lottery system is actually rewarding a product that is becoming unwatchable for fans.

“Man, the NBA gotta do something about this tanking. It’s embarrassing,” Barkley said, directly addressing Commissioner Adam Silver. “I don’t even understand why you’re [Silver] resisting. Tanking to me is easy to solve. Every team that doesn’t make the playoffs get one ball. One ball. We don’t get extra balls for losing.”

Ernie Johnson noted the dip in quality during the final months of the schedule, pointing to rosters filled with G-League call-ups that leave even veteran broadcasters confused. “Some really horrible games lately,” the Godfather added. “Some ridiculous winning margins, some box scores that you look at and say, ‘Ernie, who the heck is this guy?’”

Sir Charles spent March on his favorite time of the calendar year, covering the NCAA Tournament on CBS. It also got him his lifelong dream of calling a game alongside the legendary Dick Vitale. But while he was watching college basketball, he kept a keen eye on the NBA games, something that the Inside Guys are specifically criticized for not doing.

Charles Barkley broke old habits because of tanking

Ernie Johnson had to tease Charles Barkley for looking at NBA odds. Even the viral Pacers couple didn’t know that Inside the NBA doesn’t watch basketball.

But Chuck actually studied point spreads over the past season and found that late-season numbers have ballooned to levels he’s never seen since he played basketball in the ’90s. “Some of the point spreads were 20 points… that team’s not trying to win,” Barkley remarked. “I don’t remember 20-point spreads even back in my game.”

To put it into perspective, point spreads are meant to level the playing field between vastly mismatched teams, usually due to injuries. But double digits were incredibly rare. It signals that one team is either shockingly superior or intentionally depleted. A 20-point disparity would mean a blowout is a statistical certainty.

As Ernie said, when a team intentionally sits its star players out and plays “guys you’ve never heard of” to improve their draft lottery odds, oddmakers have to set massive point spreads to favor the ‘inferior’ team. Chuck believes flattening these double digit odds will de-incentivize non-playoff teams from tanking.

As he’s been doing on Inside the NBA all month, he (indirectly) told Adam Silver to take away ‘protected picks’ that rewards teams for losing and staying in a certain range. With the worse record (17-56) this season, the Washington Wizards have secured their protected top 8 pick. The Brooklyn Nets have also secured their top 3 lottery odds.

Chuck wants that taken away. “When you trade a pick, it’s gone,” Barkley asserted. “You don’t get to keep it. It’s gone. Because you getting your cake and eat it, too.”

The NBA is rolling out new initiatives to curb tanking next season. The rules, as Barkley put it, are closer to “nuclear secrets.” He wants to simplify it, give every team a single lottery chance irrespective of their standings, and call it a day. Until Silver takes note, the bottom of the standings are going to remain the graveyard where competitive spirit goes to die.