Charles Barkley thinks ‘the fix is in’ and that Anthony Davis is definitely joining LeBron James on the Lakers

Charles Barkley thinks he knows how things are going to play out, and the Lakers (and LeBron James) will wind up with Anthony Davis.

The NBA trade deadline is now a full week behind us, and yet the topic no one can seem to get away from is where Anthony Davis might play next. If you ask Charles Barkley, it seems this is a foregone conclusion that the Los Angeles Lakers will finally have their second star to pair with LeBron James.

As Barkley prepared for what will be another busy All-Star Weekend, he made some time to answer questions from reporters, and one particular response might catch the league’s attention (via Ben Golliver of Washington Post):

“At some point Anthony Davis is going to be with the Lakers. I said that three months ago when he signed with Klutch... The fix is in. I actually got a call from Rich Paul. I said, ‘Dude, the fix is in. You know he’s going to the Lakers.’ ... Once he signed with Klutch the fix was in.”

Really fortunate that noted investigative journalist Charles Barkley was able to get to the bottom of this issue. No further reporting need be done here. This story is over.

I’m interested why Rich Paul would reach out to Barkley at all in this situation, too, and why Barkley would take that time of all to inform Paul how this situation is going to play out when Paul has endlessly more information on, well, everything.

Barkley is one of the league’s most pervasive voices and probably has the largest platform of any NBA pundit, so it probably goes without saying that Adam Silver and the league offices probably aren’t thrilled that he is implying some form of collusion or “fix,” as he puts it. It would be objectively hilarious if Barkley’s comments led to any kind of perusal of why he’d say such a thing. (It almost certainly won’t, but still)

It’s all fun and games until someone catches a(nother) tampering investigation, something Magic Johnson is very cognizant of.

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