What will basketball analyst and former NBA great Charles Barkley be wearing when he strolls into Target Center for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday night?
Nobody is more curious than media personality and Timberwolves fan Sheletta Brundidge. She will be watching Barkley’s wardrobe as well as his words, all over him like a cheap suit.
After Barkley said he’d run out of suits to wear while covering the Wolves conference playoff run, Brundidge took to social media and billboards with an offer to take him shopping.
Brundidge was among the millions of basketball fans watching “Inside the NBA” after Game 3. In a post-game chat with Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford, Barkley implored him to rally the Mavs and win Game 4 to close out the best-of-seven series and defeat the Timberwolves.
“This is the only suit I got. Don’t make me see this again in Minnesota. I’m not going back home,” Barkley moaned. “I’m gonna have this same suit on if you go to Game 5. Get this thing over!”
That prompted Timberwolves fan Brundidge to taunt Barkley for presuming the Mavericks would sweep the series and chide him for his complaint about re-wearing his dirty laundry.
“You been asking everyone where to eat in Minnesota, and you should have been asking them where to shop!” Brundidge said.
Brundidge suggested that Barkley should plan to “bring ya ass” to Heimie’s Haberdashery in downtown St Paul, where she said she had two new suits “put up on layaway,” for him, with the last payment due for the NBA broadcaster to pay.
Timberwolves fans are laughing at billboards of Brundidge, two of them up in Target Center. She’s posed holding a pair of sharp looking jackets with a message that reads, “Hey Charles Barkley, Out of suits? I’ve got two! Bring ya a** back to Minnesota!”
A video of Brundidge scolding Barkley for his lack of faith in the Timberwolves is posted on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. The clip has gone viral, with thousands of views, reposts and likes and comments from fans laughing over Brundidge’s offer to get Barkley suited up for the Finals in Minnesota.
“We’re going to win! So get Mr. Barkley’s measurements!” posted one Timberwolves fan. “Hook him up with a snowsuit and parka too. Apparently he thinks he’ll need it!” added another. “I want them to win if only for this to happen,” posted a third.
Brundidge became a social media sensation earlier in the Wolves post-season run. After Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards invited Barkley to “bring ya a**” to Minnesota as the Wolves beat the Denver Nuggets, Brundidge launched a campaign to teach her “white friends” how to speak the three words, even setting up a table to tutor fans in downtown Minneapolis.
The video of her teaching KARE 11 anchor Jana Shortal how to “put some stank” on the phrase became what one viewer called an instant classic.